A couple of weeks ago I was diligently prepping winter knits for the summertime, washing them to store in the cedar chest. I was in a bit of a rush and not remembering that my new Still Light hadn’t really gotten all of it’s color bleeding out in the wash yet, and it ended up next to my Damask shawl, a much loved piece that I made in the first few days of Zooey’s life. I knitted this shawl almost entirely with her sleeping on my chest while I did it. The result wasn’t terrible, but left a green tinge on the beautiful saffron color. You can see some of it directly to the left of the Hazel Knits skein.shawlAs you can see, I already ordered a replacement skein. I ADORE this color and need it in my life. This is probably my most worn shawl. I will not likely make another Damask in saffron, but another lace shawl in this color would be wonderful. I mourned my Damask and was just going to hand it off to the kiddos for a dress up item and then I remembered over dyeing! I asked Jane, one of my intrepid knitting mentors from my LYS what to do and she suggested Kool-aid dyeing. It had been years since I did that and I had to refresh my memory with this article.

I settled on pink lemonade and got seven packets. shawl-2Zooey helped of course with this fun science experiment. After boiling one time I wasn’t convinced the color was even enough or would cover the messed up areas to my liking. I went and got another seven packets of pink lemonade and two of orange. The Knitty article suggests at least one packet per ounce of wool, but I wanted this color to pop! shawl-3After a second round of mixing and boiling the water was milky white, rather than the clear I expected, but the result was fantastic. shawl-4I’m a fan. This is a bolder orange than I’ve worn as a shawl before, but I’m embracing the result and the fun process. Now, what beautiful lace shawl should I make with 400 yards of the saffron? Ideas welcome.

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