So in a kit planning meeting long, long ago, it was decided that we’d do an entrelac kit. It’s an interesting technique that can yield very pretty results. When it was decided that I would be writing this pattern, I thought, well, darn – I have no idea how to do that!
Turns out, it’s really easy. And Yvette is the result.

Considering I had to learn Entrelac before writing the pattern, I was concerned that I’d get frustrated with it and not come up with anything very nice. But what I found was that it’s strangely addictive. Especially in Andean Silk, which is about the best yarn ever. It’s actually much, much easier than I expected – if you can pick up stitches, then you’re ready to go!

Entrelac is formed by knitting a small mitered section of stockinette, then picking up stitches from a previous section …

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I’ve used Jacquard acid dyes for a number of yarn and roving
projects, but for this month’s dyealong I wanted to try something new.

I haven’t done much natural dyeing,
and I wanted to try using everyday household items that didn’t need
special equipment or complicated recipes.  I thought I’d try using
coffee to dye my blanks – we always have it in the cupboard, and I was
playing around with the idea of using two different ombre dye patterns
in a woven scarf.

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I’ve never dyed yarn before. I love to experiment, but I
don’t really like following instructions. This makes for an interesting combo
when it comes to hand dyeing. I cook a lot and like to mix different recipes
for the same dish into a funny hybrid that by nature I can never
remember how I
made. Must be a good method for dyeing yarn, right? Definitely! Well,
perhaps .
. .

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I was actually going for more of a gradated-sunset-kind-of-look with my second sock blank,
but since my cherry blank completely exhausted all the dye in the red
Kool-Aid (to my surprise!), I only had lemonade and orange left. I
decided to wing it and try mixing 1 pack of orange with some red food
dye and a splash of vinegar and see what I’d get.

 

First I dumped the whole blank in the pot of boiling lemonade until it exhausted the dye.

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I’ve
always been curious about dyeing yarn, but I was intimidated by the safety
precautions you need to take with dyes that aren’t food safe (although now that
Kelley and Kerin have given us some pointers, I am feeling more confident). Then
Nina pointed me towards the What a Kool Way to Dye group on Ravelry, and I
couldn’t wait to give Kool Aid dyeing a try. My local grocery store didn’t have
a huge variety of flavors, so I picked up two of everything they had.

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