Note to self – Charcoal dye plus Rose dye creates an absolutely gorgeous lavender grey mix!  Today I painted the Retreat Sampler – the one that got away and ended up being too big to really be a sampler.

The results have been unexpected!  The charcoal dyes have spread into the rose dyes and created a beautiful mix of colour instead of the the clearer colours that I was expecting.  The result – I think – is better than the intended result.  The colour is one that I couldn’t have created, but is incredibe and has created a shawl that I will wear often and with many colours.

This was the shawl that really shouldn’t have happened.  It sort of grew and got bigger and bigger and suddenly was no longer sampler size and now in the painting the charcoal dye spread and spread and changed the colours around to create something better than the sum of its’ parts.

The area of the shawl that isn’t as expected is the edging.  It was painted in ribbons of cranberry and rose with rose inside the points and charcoal stripes between – I wish I had taken pictures – but I was entertaining some young ladies of the neighbourhood who were quite fascinated with what I was doing.  I thought that I had kept my brush with the charcoal dyes fairly light, but either there was more dye there than expected or the charcoal and rose really like each other.  Instead of stripes I got this wonderful play of colours.  Every project a new lesson.

Happy Knitting

Lynette

Some notes a day later –

• Turquoise, teal and moss green, blend well together, but they will overwhelm yellow.  But they still work. 
•  Yellow and turquoise combine to create bright green.
• Charcoal dye will work well for overdying – it likes to mix!
• Charcoal and Rose Pink create a lavender grey.
• Charcoal dyes go a long way -even when used sparingly.
• Make sure to wait until painted item is completely cool before rinsing – I think that I may have shocked the fibres a bit – the texture seems to change – still blocked out well.