Automotive Shawl
This one is Justice from the Embrace the Lace club done in Dream in Color Classy in the Justice colorways. I’m calling it my automotive shawl.
(click for a larger photo)
Yes, this is supposed to be lace. In truth, it’s about as lacy as an SUV on a testosterone high. I’ve seen transmissions lacier than this thing.
The color reminds me of a pool of motor oil, reflecting bits of rainbow, especially the second skein. You can probably tell from the photo, and certainly from the large photo, where one skein ended and the next began. The dye lot numbers match. The dye lots do not. I was worried, but I realized that all I have to do is soak the thing for about five minutes and the two colors will just bleed into each other.
The colors run so fast, they’d lap Andretti twice on his best day. It’s already ruined my bamboo needles, and whenever I knit for more than an hour I have to wash my hands or look like a fingerprint job gone horribly wrong.
Once I get the thing to be more uniform, I’ll get out my dye pot and introduce the final project to something it never met as yarn–mordant.
The plan is to bring it to a near boil–it says it’s superwash, but I don’t trust it not to felt anyway–and add 3 tablespoons of vinegar (an effective mordant for wool) for every 100 grams of yarn, then let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. If that doesn’t secure the dye, I don’t know what will. If it does secure the dye, so I don’t need to fear for my upholstery, I’ll keep it in the car.
It feels oily too, like a shammy that’s been used too many times to wipe down the tires. It’s not lanolin, at least not like the lanolin I’ve felt in raw fleece. It feels oily…greasy.
It’s a fast shawl. If I can make the dye fast it’ll be a warm shawl. It’s just not a very good shawl. It was to fit the theme, justice, because it looks hard (too whom? No knitter would say this looks hard) but it’s really easy and a shawl that pretends to be something it’s not is the very definition of justice.
2 comments February 1st, 2010