Rainforest yarn!

[OneSheepHill]

 I ran across the book "Rainforest" by Thomas Marent awhile back and thought it would be so fun to duplicate some of the pictures in yarn. I finally got around to it last week. I thought it was challenging, but I loved the results:









It got me all inspired to try other books, like maybe a whole book on roses perhaps?

[WIPs]

Welcome to Craftster!

The results are great! Really nice colors!

[inle_rah]

Nice.  love the Frog yarns.  The colors are awesome.

[sherry71]

Those are freakin fabulously beautiful!

[LUBEE]

those came out great i love to see what inspires people!
what did you use to dye them with?

[sweetdandies]

Wow, what beautiful yummy yarns. You really captured the colors in the book!

[OneSheepHill]

Thank you everyone!! Lubee, I used Jacquard acid dyes. I did the pink/orange and the green/blue in a dye bath and the other two I did by steaming.

It was such a good feeling when they turned out right, I'm almost scared to do any more! :-)

[thecoffindontwantme]

Those are so great!
The colors match perfectly.

[rhinestonextract]

those are absolutely beautiful!!!!  i like the first one the best - i would love to crochet a little clutch in those colors! 

[Miss_Vicki]

Wow!  I really love the mottled effect you have achieved with the black over the blue/orange on the first froggy one.  I am going to have to work out how to do something like that, when I finally get sick of all my dyed yarns being purely brights.  That really adds another dimension that I have not really seen in hand dyed yarns before.  Kudos 

[cmc_aust]

You've matched the colours super well!  Congratulations and what an idea for inspiration!  I love your yarn with the inspiration pics, but it's funny 'coz if I saw just the yarn in a shop, I don't know that I'd buy it, iykwim?  But your pics really sell it and I think it's great.

[Horse Power]

Oh, I enjoyed your post so much! Just delightful! My favorite was the pink and orange inspired by the frog.
Thanks for the treat! 

[Krisnotes]

Lemme just say that I don't like frogs. They scare me to no end. Ugh. Now, having said that.....I WANT YOUR FROG YARN! *L* Nice job!

[whisp3rd]

This is a fantastic post! Now that's inspiration

[Caly]

Very nice... and very creative! They look wonderful!

[sarahbird]

what a cool idea!  those look great!

[steezah]

the pics don't work for me?
 

[colorlessblue]

i too can't see the pics. i'm so curious!

[OneSheepHill]

I think it's fixed now. Sorry bout that.

[steezah]

oh my god, you can do that?! this is on a whole 'nother level. wow. They all blew me away, truthfully.


You can do that!!?! i'm still shocked that the colors are that accurate. I hope you have a blog, because I'm raring to read alllll about it

[OneSheepHill]

Here's the original blog post in which I talk a bit more about it: http://robindodge.livejournal.com/20248.html.

Basically, I start with 7 primaries: a warm red, a cool red, a warm yellow, a cool yellow, a warm blue, a cool blue, and jet black, all mixed up in stock solution. Then let's say you want to get that light, muted yellow as an example. You get a bunch of hot water in a plastic cup and pour just a little tiny bit of warm yellow stock solution in. Then just a little drop of black. If it's too bright, you can get another cup of hot water and pour some of what you just made into it. Then let's say for example that you want that red-orange. It's just a matter of mixing red and yellow, but you can use your warm and cool colors to produce different results. One other thing I do when I'm trying to color-match is that I add colors you wouldn't expect. For example, when you're mixing that orange, you can tone it down with black, but you can also tone it down by pouring in a little drop of blue. You really have to play with that to get toned-down colors and not change the color entirely. I did all those skeins with the book right in front of me, so as I poured in a drop of this and that, I could compare it to the picture.

I know that's probably way more info than anyone wanted, but it's too much fun!

[crzychick]

Those look great!

[angeleyes410]

Wow those are gorgeous! 

[enediyne1]

What a neat idea!  This would be the perfect "challenge" for the guild I belong to.

[Anna Key]

That is just awesome!  You have such control over the colours.  I am in the "chuck it in and see what comes out" camp, not by choice though, lol.

Off to scope out your blog!

xxx lou

[honeyfresh]

wow! this turned out super well, i can't believe how spot on you were with matching the colours. beautiful!

[angorina]

That is just awesome, fabulous dyeing work and gorgeous colours 

[Nienke]

Great idea and such great results! I especially loved the orange and blue frog inspired one (don't know the name of the frog).
It reminded me a bit of these butterfly inspired palettes: http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/06/01/colorful-beauty-in-nature-butterflies/

[Mariaaa]

those are fab. I love the second one.

[Cheebz]

what an inspired idea. Your colors came out wonderfully.

[yberry]

So unbelievably AWESOME!

I clicked "this rocks" because it does. Wow. Wow. Wow.