Dabbling in color

So. Since I quit one of my jobs (the one where I left the house for 40+ hours a week, I'm still a mom, wife, etc) in the spring I've been wanting to do something with the crafts I know to bring in some money so that I didn't have to find another lab job. At least not right away.

I'm really enjoying being at home. My older daughter is in school and my younger in preschool so I have the house to myself. I've been trying to finish some things around the house that needed doing and I started making things.

I knew that people wouldn't pay me any reasonable wage to knit. I thought that perhaps I could do some needlefelting, but I just don't enjoy it to the degree that I would need to make enough to sell. Again, people were probably unlikely to pay me a reasonable wage for the fancier items because they take a while to make. I tried making smaller items, but couldn't really get behind it.

I started talking with a couple friend about dyeing yarn to sell. This was an idea I could get behind. I'm interested in gradient/ombre yarns and yarns with a longer color repeat. They have grand plans that sound great, but for now, I just want to start dyeing and selling and see how it goes without making it complex. It will hopefully get us some money to sink into bigger plans and give us some experience so the transition into those plans may go more easily.

My husband has been encouraging me to get dyeing and start by selling at a local meeting. I'm looking into the technicalities of selling at the meeting.

I've started dyeing up some yarn and have already learned lots.

I was able to make a rainbow and black skein for rainbow stripy socks...that are missing purple. This is my test to see how it would look knit up and figure out gauge. I plan to knit these into socks to use as an example. They are dyed to make matching, sport weight socks.

This is one of my favorites, but it doesn't look quite like it does in the picture. It is actually a light turquoise to a darker turquoise to a dusky blue to black. I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

Here is another gradient I did. The photo is more faithful to the colors. It is light pink to dark pink to a purplish color then dark to light gray.

Here's the trio of the latest batch. Rather than gradients, these have long color repeats. The purple and chartreuse has roughly 10 yard repeats as does the black and yellow. The third ball has 10 yards of gray and 5 yards each of purple and fuchsia. 

I think it looks very striking. My husband recommended these colors based on the colors I had chosen for a cowl I knit last spring.

These are the start of what I hope will become a successful yarn dyeing business with friends. Most of the above will be offered for sale.