So this is right near my front door. It was planted . . . last year, before they put the house up for sale, and when I first saw it, it was just a wee tiny rose bush, not even hip high.

This year, it inspired me to pull out my old dyeing equipment (and buy a new dyepot, since we didn’t move the old one) and try to replicate the shade on some DK weight yarn I had in my stash. I’m way out of practice at dyeing, and had to resort to using white vinegar to set the dye since I couldn’t find my citric acid, but I think it turned out well.

I used pretty much every shade of red dye I have in combination to give the color more depth, and then my particular dyeing style is soaking the yarn in plain water first, then adding it to the dyepot with the color in it, and then when the color is about half taken up, I add the acid to set it, so it still has sections of tonality, and doesn’t come out one uniform shade.

The photo is pretty washed out, and doesn’t show the tones all that well, but red never photographs all that well, and I gave up my lightbox when I stopped dyeing for a shop. The actual shade of the yarn is a little darker than the flowers, but it did come out a lovely deep tonal burgundy-red that’s going to make a great sweater at some point. I just haven’t decided which one yet. I have about 1600 yards of it, so that’s enough for a lot of options!

If you’ve got a suggestion, let me know.

Next up: trying to replicate the color of the hydrangeas in the back, that lovely blue-purple they come in in our acidic local soil.