World-Class Contender

I'm pretty sure that I've managed, quite by accident, to create the world's ugliest hand-dyed sock yarn. I set out to dye this skein of Kona 2-ply Fingering Superwash pink with just a touch of brown. Okay, back up a little here..... last spring I participated in a cooperative buy for acid dyes from Dharma. There were many color choices, but budget constraints dictated I not choose one of everything. I specifically decided not to buy any brown dye. In fact, I remember thinking, "Well, that's just plain silly, buying brown dye. Anybody can mix up their own. It's a piece of cake. All I need to do is just mix complementary colors and I'll get brown." Heh. Pride goeth before a fall, eh?

Fast forward to August... I used my $50 gift certificate from Wool2Dye4 (Thanks again, Sheila!) to get two 1-pound cones of Kona 2-ply plus an eight-ounce hank of Kona DK. Except for a slight blue fingernails incident, I was fresh off the success of dyeing my KSKS pal's yarn (hi Dave!). I used the kettle-dye/ sprinkle dye/overdye method (patent pending) and came up with some pretty nifty wool, if I do say so myself. But enough of that - anybody can dye gorgeous yarn. This story's about the antithesis to gorgeous.

I started with an overall dye of pink of fairly light intensity. Next step was to blend turquoise and yellow (no green, see above) and dunk part of the pink skein into the pot. I checked on it after about ten minutes and started having some doubts about my master plan... it wasn't looking so good. An hour or so later when the dye was exhausted, I was sure of it. I was heading down the ugly highway.

Next I decided it needed to be pinker, so back into the pot with the whole skein along with a lot more pink dye. Wow - it's not getting any better. In fact, we're getting pretty close to hideous by now. What else could I do but add more dye to the pot? In went some turquoise and yellow and a pinch of black for good measure. I may have used more colors; I'm rather vague on the details by this time.

I really am an optimist. When the dye exhausted (again), I remember thinking, "Oh, it'll get better once it's dried. Surely it will. Won't it?" Clearly I was delusional. Are you ready for it? Can your stomach handle it? I had to take multiple shots, since none of these come near showing the true hideousness. If you think it looks pretty, then rest assured that's an accident of the light. Fair warning.....







My apologies to sheep everywhere.