It still doesn't have a name

Even though the Ernie Socks are not done, I have I already started planning my interim socks. It was the whole reason I was looking forward to this gradient dyeing challenge.

A few months ago, I got my Nekkid skein of Muscadine from Springtree Road with the intention to use it for the Tree of Life Socks. I had to reevaluate the idea since I still can't get access to the pattern. I found another colourwork pattern called Dark Isle by Julia Mueller Laris and I knew I couldn't give up on the gradient dye project.

I figured yellow, orange and red would look nice and it reminded me of a sunset.

I dyed the skein in yellow, using 30 drops of yellow food colouring and 1.5 tsp of citric acid. It turned out quite nicely, almost like a skein of Sunshine from Tanis Fibre Arts that I currently have sitting in my stash. I let it dry overnight before moving onto the next step.

I caked to skeins. I tried to get them to 52g a piece and somehow, despite using a scale and weighing 52g, I ended up with 50g and 54g cakes. I dyed both of the cakes at the same time in 20 drops of red food colouring and 1.5 tsp of citric acid.. Problem is that I didn't get the red I had wanted. It didn't occur to me that red on yellow made orange, not red! I was having a slow day. I did like results though and was willing to keep it as is.

I recaked it and had another duh moment. For some strange reason, I thought the cake would be inside out if I was winding it from the middle. That didn't work but it did show off the colour transitions better.

I let it dry off somewhat overnight while I waited to get an answer as to how to add a colour in the centre of the cake. I decided on purple. I caked a small portion of each centre and dyed it is a neon purple and a bit blue food colouring. I had more trouble untangling the mini cake (not cakes because the other one behaved itself).

I recaked the two cakes while they were still damp and I loved how they looked. I just wished I had dyed more of the centre of the cake purple.

Up until this point, I had not heat set anything since the yellow set in the beginning. I skeined the mini cakes. I put the two skeins back in water and nuked it in the microwave for two two minute sets. I let it cool and put it up to dry.

By this morning, they were ready! I so enjoyed the work to get these done and I want to do more gradient dyeing in this method.