Fun with Yarn and a Crockpot

I love Koigu and when some free Koigu fell in my lap I couldn't say no. Never mind it was peachy pink and peachy red! It has marinated for quite a while in my stash. Another yarn that I bought online for a nice price, was some worsted baby alpaca for the red scarf project. It was much more orange then I hoped. I have been plotting way to tone down the red-orange so decided to try and over-dye it. The Koigu became my practice yarn.

MsKnottyKnits, Zinlizzie and Znitter on Ravelry were all so encouraging and helpful. Thanks! They shared some wonderful links to get me started as well as their experiences.

Knitty
PieKnits

I liked the Wilton's cake gel idea as it was readily available and non-toxic. My first try with the darker red/peach yard in a pie plate in the microwave oven was a bust. I used too little dye and too little water, so I dug out the crock pot and did all 3 skeins with Wilton's blue.


The lighter peach/pink turned out a very nice shade of blue. The dye did not sneak under the figure eight ties, but the small amount of pink left is fine with me.

The darker skein came out definitely purple, with more pink showing through. I only have one skein of this, not enough for a pair of socks.

The alpaca is skein-ed up and ready to dye. I'm not sure what color I'll try. Perhaps black cherry koolaid or the Wilton's in red. Or maybe black and red. From what I read, the resulting colors are somewhat unpredictable.

My niece from Manhattan is visiting and the sun came out for her!
The cel phone camera isn't the best but Diamond Head still looks classic:)