From Raspberry to Root Beer

A couple of years ago, I spied the most beautiful shade of raspberry on the Bluemoon Fiber Arts website.

I ordered three skeins of it in my favorite base, Twisted.  As they only dye after receipt of an order, I waited several weeks, and they finally arrived.

Unfortunately, they looked nothing like the picture above.

While I know different yarn bases take dye much differently, I was shocked at the huge discrepancy between the shade of Raspberry Moose on the website and what I received.  Disappointed, I tried to swatch, but ultimately just put them away.

As I was taking stock of my inventory the other day, I decided to pull the yarn out again, as I needed to do something with it.  The options were to knit it as is, give it away or over-dye it into submission.

Dyeing won out.

First, I wound the cakes back into hanks and prepared them to soak.

Then I pulled out my dyes and decided to go with a deep, supersaturated purple-brown.

This was a good start, but I actually wanted it even darker, so I intensified my dye concentration.

After soaking and rinsing my hanks, I added them to the dye pot for yarn soup.

An hour later, I had deep dark brown yarn:

It was excruciating waiting until they dried to see their true color, but it was so worth it:

In natural light, the purple really comes through, although it is difficult to capture in a photo.  

In any event, I am thrilled to bits!  I think it is beautiful.

Apparently, so does the husband.  His interest, as well as his assistance in carrying the steaming pot from the kitchen to the utility room for me, has earned him a sweater.  So, I named the color Bradford's Root Beer   There is just enough yardage to make this:

Guston by Ann Budd

I even have the buttons!

What a transformation!