Category: Eat Knit and Dye

I soaked all yarn in water for 30 minutes before starting. Each hank was placed on a shower hook. I folded the hank in half and put it into a turkey roaster.

That was repeated until all 5 hanks were in the same pan. Water was added so about half of the yarn was submerged.

I wanted to make sure my strips of color were equal size. I could have marked the ends of the pan, so I knew where that was, but I’m an eyeball-it kind of person. I started with the yellow and laid down a strip of dye.

And then I laid down strips of blue and pink. This allows me to see where my primaries go and helped make the sections fairly uniform.

Afterward, I followed with the secondary colors. With the pan across two burners, I turned on the heat to before simmering and let the dye exhaust.

I did notice that the dye wasn’t penetrating too far in, so I used my prong to gently move around the yarn and inject color into the hank. And I let the dye exhaust (this is a time-consuming method. You’re going to hear that a lot.)

Using the shower hooks, I picked up the yarn and turned it over. This is where the shower hooks really come in handy. I like not burning my fingers.

As you can see, the other side was pretty bare. Clearly, that had to change.

Once again, I laid on my primary colors in the same placement as before.

And I laid on the secondary colors too. Then, I let it exhaust. Again.

Using the prong, I wiggled the yarn around some more and if I found bare spots, I added more dye until all my dye was gone and it had all FINALLY exhausted. I let the yarn and the pan cool overnight before rinsing and hanging up all that glorious yarn to dry.

And oh my gosh! I am in such love with this yarn. It’s such a stunning rainbow (if I do say so myself) and I cannot wait to make this into a sweater! Since this is a hand-dyed set, obviously each hank is a bit different, so when I knit it up, I’ll alternate rows between the hanks.

I had a vision for this one. I really did. I wanted something bright and sunny, with beautiful fades of pink, red and orange. That isn’t what I got. But I got to use the crockpot, so that’s a win! 

Once again, I am using Fannie, a 100% Merino Superwash Wool for my base. And I’m also using food coloring for my dye.

To start, I immersion dyed the entire hank with yellow dye. I don’t have a picture of that, but all I did was fill the crockpot with water, yellow food coloring and citric acid. I turned on the heat for 30 minutes on high and let the food coloring exhaust. This left me with a lovely semi-tonal yellow base.

I twisted the wet yarn into a hank and put it back into the crockpot (Bonus! I used the same water.)

On one side of the hank, I dropped in three drops of red food coloring.

On the other side, I put in a few drops of pink food coloring. I put on the lid and let it set in the crockpot for 30 minutes (the temperature on high). The food coloring exhausted, the yarn cooled, and I hung it up to dry.

As you can see, there is no discernible difference between the pink or the red. I think all the color just blended into one color. The twisting also left the yarn with stripes of color. Not what I was going for, but sometimes serendipity just takes over.

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.

On to the next in the Peacock Fade Set series! Since Part 1 and Part 2 already established the bookends of the Fade Set, it’s time to start worrying about the middle skeins. Because one side is Yellow and Light Green, the next one in the series will be Yellow/Light Green/Green/Blue.

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.

The skein of Frida soaked for 30 minutes before the dyeing process. I’ve noticed that so much of dyeing is how you place the yarn into the pot. I haven’t tried this placement before, so I was eager to see how it looks. I held onto one end of the hank and lowered the yarn in an open collapsing of yarn.

Which left me with a heap of yarn in my pan. I added quite a lot of water. The yarn was completely submerged and slightly floating.

I applied the yarn in a bullseye pattern starting with the center. Because I am using yellow, I made the middle section way bigger than usual. Yellow is the one color that gets swallowed up by pretty much any other color.

Around the Yellow, I put a thin ring of Light Green. Around that, I put a ring of Green. And then on the edge of the pot, I put a ring of the Blue. (See how the Green is creeping into the Yellow?)

I let the dye exhaust, so the water was clear. Notice how much of the Yellow was eaten up by the Green?

Using the shower ring, I picked up the hank of yarn and was not shocked to see how much bare yarn was present.

I re-collapsed the yarn into the pot with the bare side up.

I repeated the Bullseye Ring dye application and let the dye exhaust. The yarn was cooled to room temperature, rinsed and hung up to dry.

It’s such a lovely marbled watercolory look. I love how the colors flow all over the place. It’s an excellent addition to the fade set.

In the jar, I added a ½ teaspoon of citric acid and 1/8 tsp of the Brilliant Blue dye powder. I don’t know why I added more citric acid. I’m sure I had a reason, but I can’t remember what that reason was.

The yarn had been soaking in water. I wrung out the skein and squished half of it into a jar. I added 1/8 tsp of the Violet dye powder directly onto the yarn. I squished in the rest of the yarn.

Slowly, I added water into the jar until it was up to the brim. I capped it and set it aside.

After a while, I checked on the yarn and I wasn’t happy at all. The color had barely moved. It was going to look awful.

To confirm my fear, I pulled out the yarn to see what was happening. The purple was laying in a blob of color and there was barely any blue. And a whole lot of bare yarn. This would not do!

Taking the yarn out of the jar, I added ½ cup of water and let the blue dye dissolve. Then I squished the yarn back into the jar. With my finger, I made a divot in the top of the yarn and added more purple dye powder.

More water was added to the jar. I also kept poking at the yarn with my finger to help the purple dye move down further.

That’s better! There is at least some color now! I think when using the dry powder, I shouldn’t have wrung out the yarn before I added it. It might work better that way. 

The yarn sat for another hour before hopping into the pot with the other jar from last week. As a reminder, the water was brought up to simmering for 20 minutes. It was cooled overnight in the pot.

I rinsed out the yarn and hung it up to dry. It turned out pretty cool. I’m certainly glad I went back and added more water into the equation. It kept it from being a blob!

I had so much fun with Sadie Fiery Sunset Fade that I wanted to try my hand at another. This time I’m doing a five-part fade set using Yellow-Green-Blue-Purple as my color scheme which I’ll call Peacock. Since I love knitting sweaters, five seems like an excellent skein count.

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.

I have been wanting to try out jar dyeing. I know a lot of people do this during the summer with solar dyeing, but it’s certainly not warm weather in Washington right now. But I have a workaround!

I soaked a skein of Frida in water for 30 minutes. I put a bit of the Yellow and the Light Green in jars. In the main dyeing jar, I added about an inch of the Light Green.

I pulled the yarn out of the soaking tub and I didn’t wring it out. Then I squished it into the jar.

In retrospect, I wish I had rung out the yarn. There was so much water in the yarn that the jar was nearly completely filled, and it didn’t leave much room for another color. Next time I try a jar method, I will wring out the yarn and then add the water.

I topped off the jar with yellow dye to the very tippy top. Using my gloved finger, I did poke the yarn down as far as it would go to get a bit more yellow dye dispersion. I capped off the jar and it put over to the side to work on the other yarns.

It sat for about 2 hours before it was time to heat set it. I grabbed a pot and filled it with water and put it in the jar (and the purple jar you’ll learn about next week). I took the lids of the jar because I didn’t want the heat to seal the jar or create other reactions like glass jar ruptures/explosions.  I brought the heat up to before simmering and let the jars hang out for 20 minutes. The jars did rattle around a bit in the pan, so I’m glad they weren’t capped.

I let the yarn cool overnight to make sure the dye had plenty of time to exhaust. I plucked it from the jar, rinsed it and hung it up to dry.

I’m happy with how it turned out. There is more white bare yarn than I expected, but that’s okay. Live and learn! And it’s a good start to the Peacock Fade!