The One Of A Kind Etsy updates that we do (like the one that is happening today at noon!) often result in some of the prettiest yarns we have to offer. We do a combination of fresh experimental batches and overdyes for the sales. Below are two examples of overdyes that I think are just so fascinating. Also - interesting to note that the before shots of both of these yarns are beautiful. Often times I overdye a yarn not because there is anything wrong with it, but only because it looks like a not-quite-right version of a colourway that I already have. For example, below you'll see a whole bunch of skeins that were supposed to be our May Club colourway Mellow... they came out lovely, but not quite right. So we threw them into 3 different dye baths.
The skein on the left went into a light turquoise, the center skein into a slate grey and the skein on the right into a lilac pot. The lilac pot is the most exciting for me because the tones that come through in that batch would have been impossible to predict! You still get the pops of yellow, green and turquoise but with the softest pinky/purple overtones. So lovely.
A bunch of batches of Aurora came out wrong one day, they were just too dull looking and didn't have the vivid tones that people are looking for in Aurora. Overdyeing darker colourways like this is always a gamble because there is much less wiggle room. You can't lighten a skein and if you're already starting off dark and can't go much darker your best bet is to try and alter the tones.
We put these skeins in a dark turquoise, a hot pink and a mustard yellow. The skein on the right is the true Aurora colourway, which gives you an idea of the starting point. The hot pink and mustard yellow results really surprised me, I didn't think that they would have such a dramatic impact. The darkest navy still shines through, but all those lighter orange, turquoise and golden tones in Aurora have been tinted.
Colourways like these are so hard to part with because they really are one of a kind. Mistakes that turn into happy accidents. These are my favourite kinds of skeins. I hope you love them too!