Dyeing to Tell You About My New Hat Plans

First off, the skirt.

I finished it in time to wear it to quiz night last week! I am not completely satisfied with one or two things, but all in all, it went quite well. I was worried it was coming out too tight in the waist, so eased it a little wider, only to find that it would have been just fine if I'd stuck with the pattern. Might make another with this pattern sometime, so will trust it on the next go! I have a bit of fudging to do with the side zipper to get it to lie correctly, and will have to get to that sometime, but as that's a bit of handsewing that I haven't gotten to yet, it is as likely to be awhile before I get around to it.

The pictures are from today rather than last week, but the only important difference is that  my hair is pulled back instead of being so curled (and big. I don't like having big hair) that it looks like Lady Edith from Downton stuck her finger in an electrical socket.















Next project to catch up on: the  Hup Holland hat by Tori Seierstad.

This pattern was originally used as a fundraiser to raise money for a new football ground in Lillehammer, Norway. I was too late to buy it for that, (it is now a free pattern, now that that goal has been reached) but I plan to donate to the Jumpstart charity next time I'm at Canadian Tire to balance that out.

I had ordered some orange yarn back around Halloween, as Knit Picks had a sale on orange and black yarn, and I needed a bit of both for projects in my queue (including this one).
 
Only one problem... The orange was not orange enough.

The pile of wool sat around for awhile. I wanted to over-dye it, but that creating a bit of a getting-around-to-it obstacle. Finally, to celebrate joining the Dutch team here in Edmonton for the Mini-World Cup indoor soccer tournament, I knew I had to get around to it right away so I could make this hat.

I bought lots of Kool-Aid powder. It's easy to dye with, and, it's bright orange. I explained to the grocery store clerk, as I wouldn't want her to think I was planning on drinking 18 packets.

I spent a fair bit of a day unwinding the balls into skeins. My youngest helped by running around a couple of chairs set back to back, then sitting in the chairs when she got dizzy.

The next day, I set to work dyeing the yarn.

It was still not quite the right shade of orange as it was now too reddish, though it sure smelled like oranges!

I wanted to over-dye it with yellow to brighten it up, but went on a fruitless search for yellow Kool-Aid powder before deciding on playing with Wilton's icing dyes instead.

Soaked the yarn in vinegar, then cooked it up with Golden Yellow, which I think brightened the yarn enough. More vinegar in the rinse stopped it bleeding, but unfortunately banished that lovely orange smell.

In the meantime, as the yarn dried, I started the hat.

Though I found that the blue was not blue enough.

I finished knitting the blue rounds, put the hat on waste yarn instead of switching colours right away, then dyed the piece in the microwave.

Wilton's Royal Blue was just the thing.

The red is red enough, the white is white enough, and the black is black enough, so I'm finished dyeing for a little while.