I’ve had a near brush with disaster recently, finding myself in a colour run conundrum..
I’d decided to unravel a knitted sleeve that I was unhappy with, straighten out the yarn by dampening in water, then knit it back up again. When I dropped it in some water I noticed, horror or horrors……colour run! The yarn is navy blue – well, what could I expect?
I was eagerly anticipating sewing the pieces together and adding the cream crochet edging that finished the look. This is what I had in mind for wearing to a friend’s wedding, and time was running out.
I had questions. How long would it take to wash out the colour run? Does the water need to rinse out clear before adding a very light colour?
Before this I’d had a different conundrum – the Colour Choice Conundrum. The pattern I was following shows the top knitted in black and cream, but I was veering towards navy and cream. Black and cream or navy and cream?I eyeballed the the black and navy in the yarn shop until I couldn’t discern the difference any more.
Navy can be hard to co-ordinate – I had at least thought of that. But, all the same, I came out the shop for the top and a skirt to match.
You would have thought that I would have anticipated the prospect of colour run. But no. I was too eager to get going. And before long there I was with an unwanted bowl of navy water.
Having searched online for advice, I came across very little of relevance, but I did find a tip on colour run for one type of yarn that advised that slight discolouration of the water would not affect knitting a dark colour with white.
So, that’s what I did. Washed it, and washed it (two hand washes and three machine washes, plus a little extra rinsing) until there was barely discernible blue in the water. I added the crochet edging, and now I’m hoping for the best.
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| Finished ‘Kate’ top |
Knitting progress has been very slow as my partner, Andy, and I have been in the middle of a very weather dependant, and quite taxing, house renovation project.
So slow, that after working until the light fades (up a rather creaky ladder) I have found myself falling asleep with my knitting in my hands. When you have almost no ground floor window at the front of the house you just have to press on.
We now have an intact window again. But because of the distraction with this work, I had no matching skirt for the newly knitted top for our day out. So, I raided the wardrobe for something that would do. So, here is the knitted top on its first day out.
I’d like to say ‘here’s our house’, but no, this is the wedding venue. A good day was had by all.
Has anyone else had a problem with colour run when knitting or crocheting with dark and light colours? Any tips on offer?
