Stonewash & Mahogany

Yummy colors. I love how this turned out. This is worsted weight wool from Peru. The way this wool drinks up the dye is magical! OK - color formula: blue is made from 2 packets of "berry burst" mixade plus a tiny amount of "grape" mixade added in 3 cups of boiling water and 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar. The brown is made from one packet of orange kool-aid, one packet of lemon-lime mixade and a small amount of cherry mixade, 3 cups of boiling water and 1/4 c of distilled white vinegar. Mixade is sold at Aldi's in packages of 12 packets for $.69 Can't beat that! After dipping each end of the hank of wet wool yarn in the jars of dye bath (completely soaks up color in about 15 minutes - dye bath is then colorless), I squeeze out the extra water and place each hank in a glass casserole dish and bake in the oven at 200 degree F for 10 minutes. This extra step further sets the color and makes them even more colorfast. After removing the yarn from the oven, allow yarn to cool to room temperature. Then, rinse in cold water - til the water runs clear. Mine always runs clear right from the start, so it's really a cleansing rinse. The items I knit with this yarn need to be handwashed in cold water and dried flat. I have lots of sock patterns for worsted weight yarn that I have found on the internet. It's my favorite yarn for socks. If you like toe-up socks, Google "You're Putting Me On Socks". I have toe-up and cuff down patterns. I like both. The great thing about socks made from worsted weight wool is how quickly they knit up! I do them on size 5 dpns. I also improvise a pattern on the cuff and follow pattern directions mainly for turning the heel.