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I fully admit it. I have no idea what I’m doing with this one. I’m just going to poke around and see what happens. If it’s great, awesome, if it sucks, awesome. As long as I had fun! 

I grabbed a hank of Fannie, 100% Merino Wool Superwash, and got to work! I soaked it in water for 30 minutes and contemplated my dyeing options.

I decided to give food coloring another go. I filled up a pot with water up to about an inch. I added yellow food color.

I scrunched up the yarn and literally dropped it into the pot. The accompanying splash was not impressive.

Using the Green, Yellow and just a touch of the Neon Blue food coloring, I just dribbled random drops everywhere.

To make things more interesting, I smushed the yarn and dye around until it started blending.

Happy with my mad scientist concoction, I turned on the heat to just before simmering and let the dye exhaust. And naturally, I let it cool, rinsed it and hung it up to dry.

It’s an interesting concoction of random blurs of color. I like it. It's random and weird. I’m glad I tried out this technique!

The crockpot has returned! I love dyeing things in it because it’s so easy. Just pour the dye, set it, and leave it. Since I use my crockpot to make actual food, I’m sticking with food-safe dyes. In this case, its food coloring.

This week I am working with Sadie, a 80% Merino Extrafine Superwash Wool and 20% Nylon that I just adore.  You should seriously check it out!

I prepped a skein of Sadie by soaking it in water for 30 minutes and attaching a shower hook. To prep the dye, I got out three teacups, filled them with water and 1 tsp of citric acid.

Here’s how the food coloring broke down:
• Orange Teacup: 3 drops of Yellow and 3 drops of Pink
• Rose Teacup: 3 drops of Yellow and 3 drops of Red
• Pink Teacup: 3 drops of Pink and 3 drops of Red

I put the yarn in the crockpot like I was folding a hand towel, so it was draped over itself. I poured the food coloring directly onto the yarn in sections. First the Orange Teacup over the middle, and the others on the sides.

I popped on the lid and turned on the crockpot on high for an hour. I checked with a spoon to see if the dye had exhausted and it had. The yarn was cooled, rinsed and hung to dry.

The crockpot has returned! I love dyeing things in it because it’s so easy. Just pour the dye, set it, and leave it. Since I use my crockpot to make actual food, I’m sticking with food-safe dyes. In this case, its food coloring.

This week I am working with Sadie, a 100% Superwash Merino Wool that I just adore.  You should seriously check it out!

As you can see, Ballet Slipper is a lovely shade of pink all on its own. I started by soaking the yarn in water for 30 minutes while I prepared the dyes.

I am using Jacquard Acid Dyes which I mixed into glass jars with a 1tsp of citric acid per jar. I used 1/8 tsp of Salmon, Turquoise, and Lilac.

I put the hanks into a pot and filled it with water so the yarn was fully submerged.

The Dye was added into stripes on top of the water and I let it exhaust.

Using my prongs, I checked to see how much yarn hadn’t gotten dyed. It was a lot.

Way more than I expected wasn’t dyed. Time to change tactics!

I switched to a taller stock pot and filled it with a lot of water, so the yarn could freely float.

I directed the dye to the bottle of the pot using the syringes.

Sadly, the blue dye pretty much overwhelmed the pot. I shrugged and let it exhaust. It’s one of those cases where things don’t go the way you want them too. But we will never know if we don’t try!

I rinsed out the yarn and hung it up to dry. I’m still really surprised how much yarn didn’t get dyed. I’m not super thrilled with my results, so these will be candidates for a re-dye

But we have learned that the pink does mute the colors. The blue still reads like a blue on Ballet Slipper, but it has purple undertones. Overall, I would say the pink gives everything the rosy sunset look to things. It’s overall very pretty, and I would recommend it!

We have reached the finish line of the Peacock Fade Set! (Check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) This set has been about different ways to place yarn when doing the dye work, and today’s colorway is no exception.

For my base for all of them, I will be using Frida. It’s a 100% Merino Wool Superwash with 16 microns of softness. It’s so super-duper soft, and just touching it during the dyeing process is luscious. It will make the most luxurious sweater.

While the yarn was soaking in water for 30 minutes, I filled a pot with green dye and approximately an inch of water and Green dye. By holding the shower hook, I slowly started pilling the yarn on itself.

In the end, I had a mountain of yarn sticking out of the dye.

Using a syringe, I applied the Blue dye to the top of the syringe. I felt like I was covering a snow-cone with syrup.

I turned the heat on and brought the temperature up to before simmering and left it alone for 15 minutes.

Using my tongs, I moved the yarn around. There were some bare areas, but that’s not a problem because there is plenty of green dye in the water.

I loosened up the mountain of yarn and added some water (at the same temperature of the yarn in the pot, I didn’t want it to felt). And I left the pot to exhaust.

I like it. It was a good way to get a two-color skein where the placement was more random then a half and half painted hank. I’m excited to see how this one knits up.

On to the next in the Peacock Fade Set series! I really enjoyed Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, but now it’s time to focus on Part 4. This skein will be next to the Blue and Purple bookend, so it will be Green/Blue/Purple.

For my base for all of them, I will be using Frida. It’s a 100% Merino Wool Superwash with 16 microns of softness. It’s so super-duper soft, and just touching it during the dyeing process is luscious. It will make the most luxurious sweater.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know the yarn had been soaking in water for 30 minutes. I wrung out the excess water and crumpled it into a messy handful of yarn. (Only do this if you have tied off the yarn in multiple paces AND you have a shower ring. Unless you like yarn knots. Your choice, really.)

The yarn was plopped into a pan and filled with water. The water level is fairly low; plenty of yarn is sticking out of the water.

Using a syringe, dollops of dye were applied in random places.

I did this until the yarn surface was completely covered in color. The heat was turned up to near simmering, and then the dye exhausted until the water turned clear.

I flipped over the yarn and of course, bare areas were showing. So, more dye was blobbed all over the place. The yarn marinated like weirdly colored spaghetti until all the dye exhausted.

I’m really surprised at how much bare yarn is still showing. I’m thinking I should have added more water or perhaps less citric acid. However, it still works as part of the fade set.