Fixing things

Last week, I ordered a couple of Pashminas (I don’t always want to wear or worry about hand knits) and I actually got them both for free because of credit card points.  When they arrived, the gray one was a lovely medium gray which will go with anything in my closet.  The one they called pink was not pink at all.  Despite the name and the color on the website it wasn’t pink, it was coral.  I don’t really have a problem with coral, it’s pretty and I do wear it, but I felt like this coral was too spring and summer colored and I really wanted a four season pink.  (Just in case the name on the blog wasn’t enough of a clue, I think pink is always appropriate.)  Here’s what it looked like:

It was pretty, but not quite what I was hoping for.  Ordinarily I would return it and get another color, but there wasn’t another color I wanted (I had my heart set on pink) and going someplace else wouldn’t be free.  Then I thought about it a minute, pashmina is cashmere and silk.  Cashmere and silk are both protein fibers.  Protein fibers are dyed with acid dyes.  I have acid dyes in my dye bucket out in the garage.  I could over dye the pashmina!  Also, just to make this super easy, I wouldn’t have to worry about felting.*  So I trotted out to the garage, grabbed my dyepot, my big dye stirring spoon and mixed up some cool red.  I decided that since coral has pink (and orange) in it already, I just needed to tip it towards the blue side of red and it would be pink, hence the cool red.  I stirred and cooked and cooked and stirred until the dye was exhausted.

What I pulled out is exactly what I was hoping for - a strawberry red.  It’s the pinkest that pink can get before it turns back into red!  Loopy is sitting there to help the camera - his shirt is a true, pure red.  You can see how close I got to red, without quite getting there.  I love it and I’m so glad I thought of over dyeing it.  This is so much better than the original coral!

So, what did you do this weekend?

*True cashmere doesn’t felt.  If it’s been mixed with lambswool (which some cheaper things labeled as cashmere have been), it will felt, but if you buy your cashmere from a reputable source, so you know it’s cashmere, it shouldn’t felt.  I actually wash my cashmere sweaters in the washing machine on the delicate cycle.  I’ve had success with LL Bean and Garnet Hill cashmere.  I do dry it flat.