A Tale of Two Experiments

Last night I conducted a little dyeing experiment here Chez Knit/Wit. I'd had this yarn in my stash for quite a while that didn't particularly appeal to me, to put it nicely. Frankly, I don't even remember why I bought it, although my guess is that it was cheap and I was trying to get my Knit Picks order over the free shipping threshold. Here's what it looked like originally:

This might be the perfect colorway for someone, but not me. I'm not into the oranges, and yellows I like only in small amounts. I decided to try to overdye these skeins with blue, figuring the yellow would turn green, the orange would turn brownish, and the white and gray areas would turn shades of blue. So, on the way home from work, I stopped by the supermarket and picked up a fistful of packets of Kool Aid. I think I used about 14 packets of Blue Raspberry Lemonade (which turns out kind of cloudy, I should tell you) plus two packets each of Lemon-Lime and Grape for some depth to the color. I put all but two of the lemonade packets and one of the grape into the pot; once the yarn was submerged, I sprinkled the contents of the last three packets on top.

Here are the (vastly improved, if I do say so myself) results:

Although one skein is a tad bit darker than the other -- obviously it was the one that got the majority of the second grape packet -- I'm very pleased with the transformation. Now I have shades of blue, deep purple, olive green, chocolately brown, and small spots here and there of the original colors. As an added bonus, the yarn smells deliciously fruity!

Experiment Numero Uno: Success!

Now, onto the second experiment. Last night, after posting, I was taken with the urge to cast on a sock (and it wasn't my first STR sock). You see, for several days I'd had a pattern running through my head, so I wanted to see how it would look in yarn. I decided I'd design a sock and, if it was any good, maybe submit it to Knitty or MagKnits. It knit up quickly and I was thrilled with how it looked:

Then today, just as I found myself getting caught up at work, I decided to go check out the submission specifics for Knitty and discovered that the spring '07 issue is up. Bonus -- submission details and new patterns! Great, right? Er, well ... Just go look at this particular pattern. Look at all familiar? Yeah, IT'S THE SAME PATTERN. The only differences are a cuff, an extra knit stitch, and a purl stitch. Grrrrr. I'm still going to finish the sock, but obviously now I can't submit it anywhere because it will look like I've just copied this other pattern -- right?

Experiment Numero Dos: Curses! Foiled again!