When faced with that much Black Cherry gone (seven packets!), and a still-magenta-yarn staring at me, I started sifting through what little I understand about color.
Then, I remembered this. Byron Pickering is one of Vern's favorite artists, and we actually stopped by to see him on one of our trips out to the Oregon coast. Byron and his wife were wonderful to talk with, and it was incredibly neat to see some of Byron's originals on display in his home. Before Pickering began painting the ocean, he went every day and watched it . . . for a year. 365 days. Just watching and taking it all in. It's apparent from his work that he really knows how Northern Pacific, and I love looking at his work. But, back to dyeing . . .
I remembered about using complements in order to get the color one wants. Black Cherry wasn't giving me what I wanted, so I had a daring thought: add green.
Wait! Won't that make brown?
Yep.
That's what I wanted. A little brown in that magenta to take the bad 80's memories out of the color for me.
(It's hard to use the sun when it has set . . . ;o)
And here's what happened. (The "morning after" shot.)
Not bad, eh? I apologize profusely for the glaring white background. That's morning sun on my white tub. The yarn dried hung on a plastic-wrapped broom handle.
One skein is very much lighter than the others, and it's back in the dyebath tonight, trying to darken it up a little.
Witness:
We'll see what happens. I tried dyeing them all together so they would be the same color . . . but next time I'm going to dye one skein at a time and take notes so I can reproduce the color on the others. ;o)
And now I need to stop being a bad girl and go finish cleaning up dinner. Have a great night!
