Sock Siblings.

I have a pair of socks I made out of Blue Ridge Yarn’s Dragon’s Breath.  They’re… interesting socks to say in the least.  They are siblings – resembling each other in coloring, but in features very different… I was trying out two different ideas for sock patterns, both of which I was not quite happy with.  One of them I still am working on, the other pattern idea I trashed.

I knew they were going to bleed.  When I was working with them, they would leave a line of red on my finger where the yarn slid over my hand.  So, knowing this, I took them into the shower and used them as washcloths for a month, and each time I used them the red dye would go down the drain.  Finally, they seemed to be running clear, so I decided to dry them out and wear them.

Four Color catchers, arranged as they got lighter each soak.

I often have to double up on socks – I have poor circulation and my hands and feet are always cold.  The under-layer wicks moisture from my foot, the outer layer is wool, which keeps things warm.  It has an added benefit of mitigating the wear on my socks.

I wore my white under-layer socks with my Dragon’s Breath socks… and my under layer promptly got stained red.

Back into the shower the socks went.  This time, I also began soaking them in a bucket of hot water with a few Shout color catchers.  They’ve worked wonders, and after using a few of them, my socks haven’t bled since.  You can see that they took up quite a bit of dye – imagine if I had washed them with other things.

Well, coming off of the positive experience with the color catchers, I had a second pair of socks, these ones Crayon Box by Schaefer Yarns on Nichole.  Unfortunately, they are no longer selling yarns wholesale, though I hear a rumor that she is running a small outlet.  You can see a picture of me working on the yarn on a Train in India.  It’s bright and rainbow-like, and it filled me with delight as I was working with it.

You can see the pretty rainbow sock peeking out of my bag in the lower left corner.

It no longer is that bright.

Six color catchers, and they are all about the same color – no tapering off as the dye gets out.

I had an inkling that the yarn might bleed a bit – I had gotten my knitting bag a bit wet and some of the blue from a strand of yarn transferred to a piece of paper.  But Schaefer has a really good reputation, so I figured that the yarn would only bleed a little bit.  I decided I could put a few color catchers in a bucket, like I did with the last socks, and that would be the end of the issue.  Presto!  Beautiful rainbow socks.

Not so much.

The blue has traveled quite a bit into the other colors.  Interestingly, when I soak them, the water comes out reddish, but when I wash them, the water comes out blueish.  So we’ve got several different colors that are bleeding.

So last night, feeling pretty frustrated, I put them into the bucket for another soak (I’d given up on the color catchers).  But just before I put them in, it occured to me – what if the bleed isn’t from excess dye?  What if it’s because the colors didn’t really fix in this pot?  What if there just wasn’t enough acid to do the work?

I added a generous slug of vinegar to the water (enough Michael smelled it two rooms over), and put the socks in – not really expecting much.

This is the socks this morning.

Can it be?  The water is clear?

See the water?  It’s clear.

Let me show you again.

Completely clear water.

Completely clear.

I am tentatively hopeful.  I’m going to give them a wear later this week as soon as they are dry, and see how they do.

Waiting on them to dry.  Still pretty, in their own way, but not really a rainbow.