Overdye Sweater Request
A while ago, a friend asked me if I could overdye a sweater for her. It is a lovely cabled sweater knit out of a merino/silk yarn but unfortunately it was a light grey colour which is not flattering for my friend’s colouring. My friend did knit this lovely sweater but did not choose the colour (store sample originally).
I suggested overdyeing it green as I know that is a colour she loves and that we like the same greens. I also asked if she minded that there was some variation in the colour and she said that would be fine. Handpainting is my normal method of dyeing and I thought it would be interesting to see if I could make a sweater knit out of a sold colour look like it was knit out of hand-dyed yarn with subtle variations in the shade and depth of colour.
I used two large square trays side by side to lay out the sweater while I was dyeing it. I created several cups of dye first using a mix of my main green dyes and a couple of jars of green leftovers to get an unique green as I wanted the colour to be a pretty consistent colour across the sweater. I wish now that I had thought to take a couple of pictures while I was overdyeing the sweater. 
I ended up overdyeing it twice as the grey showed through more than I liked after the sweater was dryed the first time. The second time I make the dye a bit stronger so I was able to use less dye and it took less time. I am quite happy with the final result. The close-up picture of the sleeve shows the colour pretty accurately.
I returned the sweater to my friend about a week ago but it was not quite dry yet so she couldn’t try it on. She sent me an email yesterday to thank me and to say that she was wearing the sweater. I met up with her at knit nite and I took this picture of her wearing the sweater. My friend also said this in her email – “You can not imagine how thrilled I am with my sweater, thank you so much. The colour is perfect.” I’m so glad that she likes the new colour of her sweater.