To DYE for… A Beastie Hairdressing Odyssey

Hello there Beastie friends! I hope you’ve been enjoying travelling around with Paddy and Plunkett these last few weeks – if you’ve missed out you can catch up with their latest antics here, here and here. Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you. All done? Great! Let’s greet a new Beastie, then… It’s been a while, hasn’t it? But this one is dye -ing to meet you too!

Hello there, monster lady!
This Beastie girl was created as a very special birthday gift… And as you might have guessed from the title and subsequent puns, copying her human counterpart’s supercool hairdo was a really big part of this project! Let’s take a closer look at that colourful barnet, shall we?

So, we’ve got rich, natural dark brown at the top, multi-tonal blues at the ends… And her hair is curly, too!

Getting this to work really did take a bit of pondering. You see, when humans dye their hair like this, it’s not too tricky. The ends are bleached, dyed in your colour of choice, and then you can enjoy watching the ever-changing tones as the dye gradually fades. Being wool, Beastie hair responds much less positively to the initial bleaching treatment, and that meant I had to start by turning the entire process on its head!

So, I selected a couple of yarns from my stash – one solid blue and one multicoloured hand-dye helped me capture the right array of hues – and set about colouring the “root” ends darker to get the effect I wanted. Since I was only dyeing a very small amount, some sums were involved to make sure I got the reduced quantities of ingredients in the correct proportions. This, and the mixing that followed, had me feeling very much like a mad monster-making scientist!

Then, using highly technical apparatus (consisting of wooden clothes pegs, chopsticks and a repurposed butter tub), I set about dip-dyeing my pre-cut yarn strands. I worked with a colour called Espresso Brown initially, but when two separate dyeing sessions left me with a shade that was more “milk chocolate”, I picked up a sachet of black dye and used it to mix my own custom blend. Phew – third time lucky! I finally had a colour I was happy with, and once everything dried out, I was able to crack on with my usual Beastie hairdressing.

Talk about a learning experience! But it was really cool to take control of my colour selections in this way, and I’d definitely do it again – especially when it comes to trying to match the human hair tones that commercial yarn companies seldom offer in their ranges.

But there’s more to this Beastie than her hairstyle, y’know! To complete her look, I dressed her in black leggings and a black hoodie…
And of course, the hood can be worn up or down. There are even holes for her ears to poke through!
And… Wait a sec, don’t go!

Aha! She’s just fetching her four-legged friends to join the photoshoot. Hello, Beastie pups!
These little scamps are Beastie pugaliers – just like the full-size ones that her new human friend has at home!

When I saw photos of the family’s dogs, I noticed that they both had quite distinctive markings. So I used needle felting to make their Mini-Mes as close as possible to the full-size versions! Meet Beastie Lucy…
… And Beastie Sanjay!

And now that we’re all here… WALKIES!
How about you? Have you tackled something new recently? If you have, tell us all about it in the comments!

Aaaaand Paddy and Plunkett will be back next week, so be sure to join us then!