Dye First or Knit First?

[kennedy444]

I found a pattern to knit socks with thicker yarn so I got Fishermen's Wool and have been reading about kool-aid dyeing. I was planning on knitting the socks then dyeing them. Does that make sense? I don't want to dye the whole 465 yrds one color and don't have a scale to measure out equal amounts for two socks prior to knitting. Any other suggestions?

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I've wound of a skein guessing how much I would need comparing it to another skein of yarn I had that I knew would make a pair of socks. You could dye them after knitting though it's two different looks and both are beautiful in their own way.

I will say that I've made socks out of fisherman's wool twice now and both have blown holes in them very quickly. Plan on reinforcing the heel and sole.

[cristeen]

Were you planning on going with a solid color? Kniting then dyeing you're stuck with solid colors or maybe two-tone, depending on how involved you want to get. But dyeing then knitting you can paint the yarn.

As for measuring the yardage, you can always take a piece of cardboard - measure 18 inches across and cut it to size, then wrap your yarn around it (be careful not to stretch it). One full wrap will be one yard.

[flapjack]

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Frey...-nach-lavendel is one of my favourite pairs of socks handpainted after knitting. Use the same techniques you would when dyeing any piece of fabric- wool is wool is wool, after all.

ETA... there's two basic ways of doing this. If you're set on knitting after dyeing wind the fishermans wool into a very long skein and handpaint it. Count the number of wraps in the skein. Wind up half the total number of wraps, cut the yarn, wind the other half. This should be accurate to within a row or two of knitting on your FO.