Hi there! I know it’s been awhile, but if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen I’m still busy with all kinds of projects. Two weeks ago I started the Scheepjes 2016 CAL (more on that later). I’m also working on a new top secret project which I can’t tell anything about, other than that it involves crochet 😉

One thing on my wishlist of skills to discover was to dye my own gradient yarn. The colours are totally me right!? 🙂

I also wanted to knit another boxy sweater because those sweaters are sooooo comfy! Combine these two things and there you have it:

My own gradient (albeit more colourblock-like than gradient) boxy sweater

It’s way longer than the original pattern calls for, but it is very -very- hard to dye the correct amount of yarn when you want a gradient sweater. Better too long than too short 🙂

It’s really big and this is just the XS size while I’m an M size. When spread out like this it almost looks like a sunset.

I made the worsted version, but with fingering weight yarn and bigger needles. This way I can even wear this sweater when it gets warmer!

I wore this sweater a few times now and the compliments I got were amazing to hear!

A few things I learned about dyeing gradient yarn

– It is very hard to guess the amount of yarn you need to dye in order to get a nice gradient sweater. You really need to pull out your math skills to get close to the number you need.

– You need to pick a pattern that’s worked in the round, otherwise it wont work.

– The amount of time I spent dyeing the yarn is much greater than I anticipated. If you are thinking of doing this, you need to reserve a whole day of re-winding, soaking and dyeing skeins (I’m not kidding!)

– It’s very hard to get a gradient that doesn’t have hard transitions. I divided the yarn in 20g skeins, but even this was not enough. Smaller projects will have a much nicer transition.

– It’s sooo satisfying knitting with your own gradient yarn, seeing the color changes as you go!

I hope I haven’t discouraged you to dye your own gradient yarn. It’s all worth it in the end, if you end up with such a pretty sweater 🙂