Color

I was stirring a pot of tomato rice soup on Fat Tuesday (a Venetian soup for Carnivale) and thinking about color.  I really tend to choose my recipes or create desserts based on the appeal of the color.  I find this strange since I will eat anything based on taste and aroma.  But when I cook for others I always look for vibrant, healthy or warming colors.  To me the juicy glissening of meat is a very appetizing color.
When I my thoughts moved over to color in knitting I realized my thoughts work somewhat the same.  The most important part of the yarn to me is what it feels like to work with.  The color is somewhat secondary and is often chosen based on what it will go with in my wardrobe, how others will perceive it or because of the person I'm making a project for.

It has been interested to look at my finished products from the dye class.  Here are my samples from the first week of dye class .  I really didn't like most of them.  They really weren't me and I couldn't see using these colors in combination.  Since this was a new experience I hadn't thought ahead about actual colors I wanted to create.  I was busy thinking about the whole process of it.  It was like cooking for me.
Week two I started to think about what I would use this yarn for Socks (specifically knee socks) and scarves (multi directional scarf) mainly.  I decided I didn't want to think of creating one big project as I wanted to use several different dye vats and techniques.  I loved the effect I got from dipping a whole hank in logwood gray before redipping different parts of the hank into logwood purple, cochineal, fustic and a blend of the latter two.  I brought a tin of saffron from the restaurant and we all got some brilliant colors of golds and yellow from that.  I did very little dyeing with the indigo pot during this class.  My biggest experiment was to immerse a hank of yarn in Barbera wine. I left the yarn in for two hours and when I took it out it had soaked up all the pigment but was splotchy with a little purple it places.  Mostly it was gray.  I should say that all this yarn was premordanted with alum and cream of tartar.  I decided not to rinse the yarn but just let it dry for a week.
The last class I brought some hand spun I purchased from Sudan farm a couple years ago.  I realized after the purchase I hadn't bought enough to knit the vest I had planned so it has just sat waiting for a project.  This went into the indigo pot.  I got the idea of having a worn denim look.  So I dipped it all and then went back and soaked only a portion of each hank for a while longer.  I really like the variegation.  I am going to get another skein of natural to add in for a little color work vest.
Back to the wine project.  I took another couple of bottles (thank goodness for wholesale!) and put the wine back in the tub.  I ended up taking the tub home and letting it sit for 3 days.  I decided to put it in an iron bath after for a short time to really set a rich color (wine is a stain not a dye).  After rinsing and drying I do have a rich colored yarn...slate gray...I love it, but it isn't what I expected.  I have talked to a couple of Oregon wine makers and they think the color definition has to do with the PH of the metal salts I'm using.  This will be an on going process.
The final products on other yarns dyed-- I did try spot dying some fiber and found that it didn't take as well after steaming.  I think I would prefer chemical dyes for this method.  This is all dyed with vegetable matter folks!!  I was amazed at the richness in color.  I don't know why since I just visited the Medievil museum in Paris and saw the beautiful unicorn tapestries that were hand dyed hundreds of years ago.
I am also becoming interested in the therapeutic uses of herb dyed yarns and fabric.  But that is an entirely different post.
I end this post in saying that I love color!  I am just starting to realize that what I enjoy for myself is not always what I think the general public might enjoy.  My favorite of these colors?  #1  and a dessert that I made last weekend but really didn't sell--a red potato and almond creme caramel.  Oh well, good thing I love to make people happy as well;)