Hand Knit Baktus Scarf with Edging

I love knitting this scarf. It looks great and is easy to knit. Years ago I bought a skein of variegated purple wool yarn when I went to the annual Taos Wool Festival in Taos, New Mexico. I wanted to find the right project for this yarn, since it was just one skein and fingering weight. I finally decided this scarf was the right project to knit and since I had knit this scarf years ago and liked it, I knew it would turn out right.

The actual name of this scarf is called Crest of the Wave by Jan Henley. The pattern is free on Ravelry, just click on the link.

The colors are so much prettier in person as purple doesn't photograph true (at least not in my camera). The colors are really a deep eggplant that variegates to a red plum and has touches of lavender too. The photo looks more blue, but it is not at all.

I love the look of the edging too. This is all garter stitch knit, but having the edging adds a nicer look to the scarf.

Not having a model to photograph this scarf makes it kind of hard to see how it looks worn. I love how soft and warm it feels when I do wear it.

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Over Dyed Hand Knit Scarf

In June of 2012 I knit a Bactus scarf  using yarn that I dyed with Prickly Pear juice from the prickly pears I gathered. I remember soaking the juice from the pears in a large pot until it fermented and then immersing the yarn skein into the pot. I left it soaking for a week or two. By doing this, I didn't need a mordant and the longer it soaked the deeper the color pink I obtained. (see last photo below).

I was taking out a scarf from my closet the other day and I noticed the scarf that I had dyed with the prickly pear cactus juice was now very pale pink. I didn't remember it being so light pink. So I looked at my photo of it and it was a pretty shade of dark pink when I first dyed it. People asked me at the time I posted about dyeing the scarf if the color would stay that pink. Well I had no idea, since it was the first time I ever dyed with prickly pear juice. Now I can say the dye definitely fades over time. It was a pale pink for a few years, but not sure how many years?

So I decided to do an easy over dye. Since the scarf was already a pale pink, I needed to keep that in mind so I didn't end up with a dye that would end up turning an ugly color. I decided to dye it purple by mixing red and blue food coloring together. I soaked the scarf in water and vinegar as a mordant first and then added the mixed purple dye. It wasn't the prettiest purple, so I then added just some blue and squirted it here and there and let the colors soak and bleed as they wanted to. 

I like the end result (it could have turned out disastrously just as easily though, so whew)! The colors of the scarf are purple and a blue-green shade now. I hope this doesn't fade over the years, but if it does, I can dye it again and hope for the best.

This is the dark pink from dyeing with Prickly Pear cactus juice in 2012. This faded to a pale pink over the years. It was mostly in my closet, so not out in the sun. I guess it mainly faded with time? I really loved this shade of pink, but not the faded pink. I should have taken a photo of the faded pink, but didn't think about it.

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