One day, while drinking my grande salted caramel skim mocha, I received an email from one of my adorable customers.
She needed help. She knit her daughter a sweater. It was adorable too.
Then she washed it. She washed it in Woolite. Bad things happened to the colors. Namely, the colors went where they weren't supposed to, and it was to the detriment of the adorable sweater.
Did you know that you should never wash your hand knits in Woolite?
It seems like you should, because the word wool is in the name. Do not be wooed by false nomenclature, my friends.
Woolite has something in it -- I'm not a professional chemist, nor do I play one on television -- so I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but I've never had good results using it. And I have used everything.
Colors go where they shouldn't. Like on other colors. Like down the drain. My guess is that Woolite is formulated to be colorfast with commercial vat dyes, which is what store-bought clothes are often dyed with. But with acid dyes? Just say no.
So this adorable customer asked what could be done, because the purple and yellow that had met each other at the party decided to make an unattractive brownish shade. I offered to try and overdye the sweater to make it pretty again.
There were several paths we could have taken, and I'm sure they all would have been lovely. But ultimately, this is where we ended up:
I used turquoise, violet, and fuchsia to create several shades that would work with what was already underneath.
This is not the sweater my adorable customer set out to make, but sometimes the unexpected adventures are more fun than the planned ones.
I hope she likes it as much as I do.
