Dyeing Knitted Blanks

Marion Proctor very kindly used her knitting machine to produce two knitted blanks for me Each is about a metre long and 24 inches wide. The idea was to dye these in a graduated fashion between red and purple similar to the colours of the Aland island wool I bought there (and which is now a warp of my Louet and looks good). On looking carefully at that warp, I discovered that the base colour was grey not cream. Presumably they are like Gotland sheep. But that accounts for the rich colours. So I started by dyeing both blanks grey.

 

Then I wrapped about one third of a blank with ikat tape, being careful to do it loosely at the start so as to get a graduation between red and grey and rigged it up in the garage.

 

With the wrapped section suspended from a clothes line.

 

The red has come out a lovely colour, almost chestnut and will fit with the warp well but the loose wrapping just resulting in two small ticks of red! I did not want to paint the blank and steam it because it is a large bundle to go in the steamer and I thought it might not heat through properly but I have decided to try it for the next blank which will be dyed violet. That might be done this afternoon. This morning I am stuffing envelopes for the Society of Bookbinders Conference next year.