It’s October and you know what that means? Halloween! The stores are already filled with candy and thrift stores have piles and piles of costumes. In honor of the spooky holiday, I’ve dyed up some Halloween sock yarn.
I’m using color 8899 of Schoppel-Wolle Boots, a blend of 44% Superwash Wool, 42% Cotton, and 14% Nylon. I thought the black marl of the cotton threads would be particularly appropriate for Halloween. It’s pretty much the opposite of Shiloh which had the white marl from a few weeks ago.
In sticking with my spooky theme, I decided to go with a three-color mix of purple, green and orange. Because these are secondary colors (as opposed to primary colors) I was extremely concerned that if the dye colors overlapped, it would create a gross brown color which certainly would not go with my theme.
Using little glass jars, I mixed some water, ½ tsp of citric acid and 1/16 tsp of Jacquard Acid Dyes. My recipes are:
• 1/16 tsp Jacquard Violet + a dash of Hot Fuchsia
• 1/16 tsp of Jacquard Pumpkin Orange + dash of Sun Yellow
• 1/16 tsp of Jacquard Chartreuse + dash of Kelly Green
I added the dashes of other colors to help brighten things up just a tiny bit.
The yarn was laid out in a triangle. Each leg of the triangle is going to get dyed a solid color. Using a syringe, I applied the color and worked it through with my fingers gently. I left the very corners of the yarn bare. I repeated this process for each leg.
At this point, I very slowly added color to the triangle tips and worked it in with my fingers until the dye colors just barely touched. So far, so good! No mud!
Next came wrapping the cinnamon bun so it could go in the microwave. This part scared me the most. I didn’t want the yarn colors touching and blending into a disaster of color. First, I laid another piece of plastic wrap on top of all the yarn. And I pressed it down around, creating a weak seal between the colors. The plastic wrap was rolled starting with the orange section. I kept the triangle shape as I rolled up everything. It created a wonky cinnamon roll, but all the colors were in their sections.
The yarn was microwaved for 2 minutes, and then another 2 minutes. The dye wasn’t exhausted, but I didn’t want to risk colors running, so I let it cool to room temperature and rinsed it out thoroughly.
And guess what? My fears were totally unfounded. There isn’t any mud and it’s a beautiful Halloween yarn. The color blends are quite pretty. I’m going to call this a success!
Stay tuned for next week for another Kinky experiment.
Ready to make your unique colorway? Hop on over to Makers' Mercantile® and pick up your undyed yarn and supplies. We can’t wait to see what you make, so tag us on social media with #makersmercantile!
About Tara
Tara Warburton is the former graphic designer for Makers' Mercantile® and a fine artist. She specializes in watercolor and colored pencil illustrations. She lives with her two cats, who are not helpful when knitting.
