Roses on the Breeze - an MKAL

Mom and I have been eagerly anticipating a mystery shawl knit-along (aka, an MKAL) on Ravelry by one of my favorite shawl designers - Boo Knits.  Since the MKAL is finally set to begin in a couple of days (you can find the pattern "Ocean Breeze" here on Ravelry), I thought I'd go ahead and share my yarn and bead choices.

Boo typically uses amazingly decadent, gorgeous and expensive yarns for her shawls - they're beautiful, and they make beautiful shawls.  Her yarn recommendations for this shawl are no different.  However, due to my current budget restrictions (broke nursing student here), I had to choose between making do with something else, or not making the shawl right now.  I've made enough of her designs to know that they turn out fabulously no matter what kind of yarn I use, and not making it was not an option!  So, I'm making do.

The biggest, most important thing about choosing yarn for this shawl is texture.  It calls for two yarns of the same color, but different textures - one silky and smooth, the other fuzzy.  What I ended up doing was getting two different bare yarns and dyeing them together.  I've used both of the yarns that I chose - Knit Picks' Gloss and Bare Hare (both fingering weight) separately, so I know that they do have very different textures once washed and blocked, although they don't look all that texturally different in the skein. 

Then I looked at what colors I've already used to make shawls, and what colors I still wanted.  I decided that I needed something rose-colored.  But it had to be the right rose - not too pink, not too dark or light... I found an acid dye that produced a color that I liked (PRO Wash Fast Wine Rose), so that began several weeks of experimenting and trying to get the dye results to match my vision.

I wasn't about to just dye my yarn and see what happened, so I started practicing.  My first attempt turned out much too dark, too wine-colored and not rosy enough:

My second try was much better (yes, the exact same dye produced both results!):

I was really happy with that, so then I dyed my yarn for the MKAL:

I love the way that it turned out (yes, I hang my yarn to dry over the kitchen sink on metal bbq skewers held down by my plastic storageware - making do, remember)!  I got the tone differences that I wanted, without clear lines between the shades.  I'm hoping that it gives a beautifully mottled effect.

So now I have my yarn dyed - and that was almost as fun as actually knitting - I found my beads, and I wound my yarn into balls.  I'm all ready!  Bring on the first clue!!!

**If you want to follow along with me on Ravelry, my project page for Roses on the Breeze is here.**