Tuesday, April 14, 2009

To dye or not to dye?

No real progress made on the actual knitting front, so look at this incredibly cute baby hat.

Thank god it is the cutest thing I've ever knitted b/c I can't tell you what a pain in the ass it was to make. I think that's my fault far more than the designers and it was quick - that's the good thing about a hat for a newborn. Even if it's obnoxious it's over quickly. The pattern is Baby Tart from Knitty.

Like I said, no dress related knitting done, but I've done some more yarn investigations. Ordered two colorcards from Webs - one for their Valley Perle Cotton and one for their 8/2 Cotton-Linen blend. Both had shades of green that I liked either in the catalog or online, so we'll see how they look and feel when they arrive.

I also reached out to a couple of dyers about the possibility of dyeing Kay's laceweight. First to the folks at Red Fish Dyeworks (www.redfishdyeworks.com) - I really liked the greens in their A color wheel, but they only do silk yarn blended with wools and alpaca and I'm worried about the heat as the wedding seems to become later each year every time I turn around. Anyway - haven't heard back from them. So that's that.

Second I emailed Ray at Knitivity. Ray had commented on Kay's M-D post and given info about his Duralace - a wool/nylon blend. Again - warmth issues. But I went to his website and read about how well he matches colors - there was a page which unfortunately I can't find again where someone had sent him a picture of their tabby cat and he made a sock yarn colorway to match! As a kitty lover I was both intrigued and somewhat disturbed by my own intriguedness. (When I told Justin his reaction was much simpler. He was just disturbed.) So anyway, emailed Ray, who got back to me VERY quickly even though it was a Sunday - in fact, I think it was Easter - and said that unfortunately linen is out of his scope of dyeing at this point in time. But he made some helpful suggestions regarding contacting other dyers through Etsy or Ravelry and also gave me a couple of points to think on. Those being 1) do I want the yarn separated into hanks before dyeing and 2) would I want to knit the pieces first and then dye them.

The answers to those questions being 1) no and 2) Huh. Never thought of that.

Although the prospect of trying to dye the lace in its current cone form is downright terrifying to me, the idea of dyeing the finished project seems somehow more manageable. Now that may be b/c it's also something that I could put off to very far down the line or it may be because I enjoy procrastination. Which are really both the same reason.
Of course the reason not to do this is kind of major - what if I dyed it a horrible color? All my hard work would be lost/ruined/destroyed and I would be left a quivering mess of a bride. In fact, if we really want to get crazy with the worst case scenarios, I would be doing the dyeing mere days before the big event, thereby dooming myself to appearing in a half done dress, an ill-fitting David's Bridal gown (no time for alterations!) or naked.

To which I say - well I'd dye one of the tiny sleeves first. Far in advance.

Anyhoo, that's about it. We're at T-3 days til the great wedding site visit of 2009. It would be fair to say that I wish I had some Valium. I can't even tell you what I'm nervous about, as I dearly love everyone who will be present and really like every place we're going to see. Just feeling highly nervous anyway.

Just b/c I cannot stop talking about it - here's a list of where we're going:

The Cloisters
www.cloisterscastle.com

Baltimore Museum of Industry
www.thebmi.org
to see pics of an actual wedding there go to:
http://stephen.lovelifeimages.net/category/Baltimore%20Museum%20of%20Industry_1.html

Chase Court
www.chasecourt.com

The Harbor Club at Pier 5
http://www.harbormagic.com/Meetings_Banquets/Weddings/weddings_receptions.asp

American Visionary Art Museum
www.avam.org
actual wedding pics:
http://maryland.perfectweddingguide.com/photographs/all/wedding-celebrations/wedding-reception-venues/american-visionary-art-museum/1648/new-image29sep085501/
http://blog.jasonknauer.com/2008/08/angie-matt-wedding-at-american.html

The Baltimore Museum of Industry is our favorite - it says something about a place that you can be watching old episodes of The Wire and say, "Oh look honey! Those men are discussing a drug deal right near where we might get married". I mean literally, on the pier where they have the outdoor weddings. Of course the episode was a few years old, so I think the museum was still in its construction stages. Hopefully there are no drug dealers there anymore. Or even actors, pretending to be drug dealers.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me.

1 comment:

  1. Dying it post knitting was also my mother's suggestion that I don't think we ever passed on to you. I like this idea--in fact I LOVE this idea.

    I have no valium. How about a percocet?

    ReplyDelete