Category: Eat Knit and Dye

When I heard that Kyle Kunnecke of Kyle William was going to be running a Knit Along in August, I was intrigued. And when I saw the clever Knit Knit Cowl, I just knew I had to try it out as my very first colorwork piece. So I decided to mingle my excitement for this Knit Along with my enjoyment of yarn dyeing.

This week, I used the undyed yarn Dolores. It’s an 80% Merino Superwash Wool and 20% Viscose from Bamboo mix, making it a perfect match for HiKoo® Sueño (the yarn being used in the Knit Along.) For the main color of the cowl, I selected Cantaloupe in Sueño, and for the contrast color, that’s where things get fun.

I grabbed the yarn around the middle of the hank and let the ends fall from my hands into the dye pot. From there, I used a dip-dye method that I have also used for the Stella Dip Dye and the Sadie Fiery Sunset. I’m just holding the yarn hank differently. I kept dipping the yarn into the dye until it exhausted, and the water ran clear.

Once that did, I rotated the center of the yarn hank so the already dipped area moved to one side, and I could dip the undyed ends into the pot. And I repeated the dip-dye steps until the dye exhausted.

Can you guess what the next steps were? Yep! You guessed it! Turn and repeat the dyeing until all the yarn has been dyed. I have to admit that in some areas, the dye didn’t exhaust, so I poured the remaining dye stock into a glass jar and added more water and citric acid into the pot. I’m saving that dye stock for other projects.

Knowing that this project was going to be used in colorwork, I was extra-worried about bleeding. So after all the yarn had been dyed and it had cooled, I rinsed it extra well. I noticed the water just wasn’t running clear. So I put more water and 1 tbsp of citric acid back into the pot and added the yarn back in. I slowly brought the yarn to a temperature just before simmering and watched the dye pot fill with extra dye from the hank. After a bit, the dye exhausted and I let it cool in the pot overnight.

In the morning, I washed the yarn one last time in cold water with clear dish soap and then let it hang outside to dry.

Lessons Learned
•    There is always a ton of dye left if the dye pot isn’t fully exhausted.
•    Dolores is 20% viscose from bamboo and bamboo fibers don’t take acid dye. This means Dolores isn’t going to be able to have the clear, bright colors of wool yarn. But I like the effect it gives. It is supersaturated but there isn’t as much vibrancy.

Have you heard about the new yarn Whidbey? I hope so. YarnYay! included a special colorway in one of their boxes, and now that the full line of colors are available, there is a Yarn Tasting Party in-store at Makers' Mercantile® on July 20th.  But did you know it also has an undyed version? It does! That means if you love this yarn AND want a custom colorway, you can have your (yarn) cake and eat it too!

If you haven’t heard about Whidbey, it’s a DK / light worsted weight in a 47% Bamboo, 37% Superwash Merino and 16% Nylon blend. Want to learn more? Check out this article telling you more about the yarn and its colorways.

Remember when I dyed the long gradient on our Frida yan base? I was anxious to try another gradient. Instead of making my string of mini-skeins, I decided to make my sock blank using the addi Express in the small size. It is easy to set up, and I anchored it to my kitchen counter.

With easy turning of the handle, I was able to create this nice long tube of fabric in about 15 minutes. I prefer this method over the mini-skeins because it not only saved a ton of time, but it also has such nice even stitches, so I know that any gradient I lay down can be even, and so I don’t end up with too much of one color and not enough of another.

In keeping with the Pacific Northwest color theme, I thought about all of my childhood summers growing up here. My parents and I would frequently go for long hikes through the forests, and I think our forests are some of the most beautiful places in the world. So my gradient will include the bright green of moss, the forest green of the fir tree boughs, and the dark brown of the earth and tree bark.

To accomplish this, I mixed up three jars of color. Each jar contains a ¾ cup of water and 1/8 tsp of citric acid. And I used our trusty Jacquard Acid Dyes.
•    1/8 tsp of Jacquard Chartreuse
•    1/16 tsp of Jacquard Spruce and 1/16 tsp of Emerald
•    1/8 tsp of Jacquard Brown

I filled three 60 ml syringes with 30 ml of each color. Then I filled one syringe with 30 ml of Chartreuse and 30 ml of the forest green mixture, and another syringe with 30 ml of forest green and Brown.

Laying the sock blank flat on top of some plastic wrap, I started adding the dye from the syringes. I just squirted the dye back and forth, not worrying about making sure the area wasn’t 100% saturated with dye. I also did my best not to overlap the colors at this point. I just eyeballed it, but you can also measure off the sections before you start and loosely tie embroidery floss around a single stitch to mark your section.

If you want to be more precise with the size of the color stripes, put a piece of paper with lines drawn on it under the plastic wrap spaced at whatever dimension you wish. That will help show you where to begin and end each color section. Perhaps I'll do that in another post for you.

To mix the sections where two colors meet, I added a smidge more of each spring at the section lines, then pressed down on the yarn tube to squish out the excess dye and smoothly mix the colors. Next, I pressed down along the entire length of the tube (warning! If you are following along as home, make sure you check the dye on your gloves. You don’t want brown getting into your chartreuse!). This not only mixes the colors but makes sure the yarn is fully saturated with dye all the way through, so I don’t get white spots.

Since you're working with a series of colors, work from light to dark  to reduce the chances of putting colors where you don't want it to be.

Next up is the making of a cinnamon roll! Fold the plastic wrap over the yarn tube and loosely roll it up just like a cinnamon roll (though not as tasty). Using a dye dedicated plate, I popped it into the microwave for 2 minutes. Let it rest for a few seconds, then microwaved it for another 2 minutes. The plastic wrap will probably puff up a bit and some of the dye might leak out. I find it harder to exhaust dye (where the water goes clear) using the microwave method. It isn't the gentlest method to set dye, but it works!

Using some tongs, I put the yarn wrap into my sink and let it cool down. When the outside was cold enough to handle, I unwrapped the roll and let it cool to room temperature. I washed the yarn in cold water with some clear dish soap and was pleased to find the water was surprisingly clear. And out on the porch, it went to dry.

Last up was winding the ball to see the gorgeous gradient. The nice thing about a sock blank is it unravels quickly and easily. So unlike the mini-hanks from Frida, this process took the same amount of time that it does to unwind any hank of yarn into a ball.

Remember to wait until your yarn is totally dry before winding it into a ball or cake.

For this week’s installment of Eat, Knit & Dye, I have selected the undyed yarn Stella, which has been bleached & steamed to give it a whiter base than most undyed yarns. This sock yarn is a blend of 75% Wool and 25% Nylon. Out of all the undyed yarns Makers' Mercantile® carries, this is the one the brightest white, and I wanted to try and keep some of that undyed.

I really like the color combination of yellow, green and blue. I figured that dip dyeing would be a fun method to achieve the bands of colors with some blending I was hoping to get. I once again used Jacquard Acid Dyes, which I added in powder form directly to the dye pot. The dye pot was filled with 4 cups of water and 1 tsp of citric acid to start.

To get started, I filled the pot up with the water, citric acid, and yellow dye, and brought it to a temperature right before simmering. To protect the undyed portion of the hank, I held it in my hand and looped the rest of the hank over my arm and wrist. I dipped only the portion of the hank I wanted to get dyed into the pot and swished it around gently to make sure dye was penetrating throughout the hank.

I knew that it was going to take a bit of time for the dye to exhaust, so I stacked it over the edge of the pot and let the excess rest on a plate. This kept my arm from getting tired while I waited for all the dye to be absorbed and the water to turn clear (aka exhausting). And you might notice in some of the pictures you can see the Leslie Alpenglow yarn on the right. So I worked on that at the same time.

I progressed through the rest of the colors in the same manner. Adding the powdered dye to the dye pot, mixing it in until it was dissolved, and then dipping the yarn. I did have to refill the water several times as a lot of it was absorbed by the yarn. I didn’t take pictures because it was pretty self-explanatory, but I do have this image of the last color just hanging out and waiting for the dye to exhaust.

After the last of the dye exhausted, I let the yarn cool to room temperature. I rinsed it in cold water, making sure to keep the undyed section on top so no excess dye didn’t accidentally get on the fibers. I also washed the yarn in clear dish soap. And the yarn went out to dry.

This is a fun and cheerful colorway. I think it would make a great pair of socks. You could combine it with ​Zitron Trekking XXL​ or Trekking Sport if you want to have stripes, or perhaps different colored toes and heels.

What I learned:
•    The dye takes a long time to exhaust. I should have used less dye to start with.
•    No matter how hard you try to keep an undyed portion uncovered, somehow some dye might sneak in. I think I had a smidge of green left on my gloves.

I have never seen the Northern Lights in real life, but I really really REALLY want to. I love how the neon colors fill the night sky, and nature puts on a light show. I’m looking into vacations to Iceland specifically so I can see the Northern Lights. Plus, the pictures in Midgard by Stephen West & Cirilia Rose show how beautiful Reykjavik is. This is a bucket list sort of vacation.

This week I am working with the undyed yarn, Felicia. It is a blend of 65% Merino Extrafine and 35% Mulberry Silk and is quite luxurious to work with, and a delight to dye. I have to admit, I kept admiring the feel of the yarn.

I once again used the lovely Jacquard Acid Dyes. For this yarn, I mixed the dyes up in condiment bottles, all using 3 ounces of water.
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Hot Fuchsia
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Turquoise and 1/8 tsp Sky Blue
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Brilliant Kelly Green
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Violet
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Jet Black
•    ¼ tsp Jacquard Chartreuse

I presoaked the yarn in a bowl of water for an hour prior to dyeing. For this experiment, I used the funky brownie edge pan, but I think if I were to try this again in the future, I would use the saran wrap method from the Rainbow Fade Set or the dip dye method from the Fiery Sunset. I’ll explain why in a moment.

I filled the pan with water and 1 tbsp of citric acid and added in the yarn. I tried to make sure the yarn was submerged as much as possible. The pan is spread across two burners and the heat on low. The water should be just before simmering.

And the weekly safety note: everything you see here is dedicated to dyeing as acid dyes are not food safe. And wear a respirator when working with the powdered dye, as there is no need to dye your lungs.

Once the water was at my desired temperature, I slowly started adding the dye stock both directly to the yarn and the water surrounding it. And wow, did the dye strike quickly. I’m sure it is because I used way too much acid. The dye didn’t have time to circulate in the pan and the insides of the skein didn’t get any dye to penetrate. I’ve also found that the brownie pan is a fairly narrow channel for the yarn, and it just doesn’t let the water circulate.

In attempt to get all the yarn colored, I just kept sifting through the yarn strands with a prong and adding in more dye stock to the bare areas. I had to spend a lot of time with this skein to make sure the dye penetrated all the way inside the skein, but it still did turn out blotchy. I can work with this since the inspiration is the Northern Lights and I’ll just call the white spots stars (also known as a “design feature.”) Despite its flaws, I’m still happy with it, and I certainly learned a lot with this one.

Lessons learned:
•    I used too much citric acid, and the dye struck too fast. I should have kept the acid levels lower.
•    I like the brownie pan, but I think it’s better for different techniques. I want to try more long gradients and yarn where the undyed part is part of the design.

We all have it... the yarn that is in our stash that we aren’t sure why it's there. Maybe we got it on clearance somewhere. Maybe its cashmere (and who cares that it is puce colored!) Or perhaps it was a gift from your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate? (Bonus if you get that Spaceballs reference!) Regardless, it’s a yarn in a color that just isn’t quite what you want, but it’s too nice to toss out. 

By now, you may have picked up on the fact that I love colors, the brighter the better! And this tan yarn just isn’t my cup of tea. Maybe tan is your favorite color, and that’s okay, but if I’m going to spend my time knitting up something, I want it to be in a color that I love. 

I’m not exactly sure what this yarn is, but I’m thinking it’s a Zitron Trekking XXL, a fabulous sock wool that is 75% Superwash Merino Wool and 25% Nylon blend. I wanted to see what would happen if I overdyed the same yarn in two different colors of Jacquard Acid Dyes.

I started by taking the yarn out of its skein form and made two hanks by using a swift. Each hank is 50 grams of yarn. After that, I knew that I needed to add several figure 8 ties, though I like to do three loops instead of two to make sure the yarn isn’t going to become a tangled mess. I used embroidery floss for the ties because I have a bunch of it just laying around.

Out comes my trusty old pan. I have read that I shouldn’t use a pot with the Teflon coating because the acid will eat away at the coating and it can also alter the dye colors. Since I’m just doing this for fun, I’m okay with both of those risks. And as always, everything you see is used only for dyeing and not food prep. I also wear a respirator.

The pan was filled with 6 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of citric acid. I added in 1/8 tsp of Jacquard Turquoise to the water. It doesn’t look like it in the picture, but I didn’t drop the dye into the water, but instead dip the measuring spoon right into the water and then gently mix in the dye powder. This reduces the amount of dye powder floating around in my kitchen.

Taking my presoaked yarn, I put one of the mini-hanks into the dye bath, making sure it was completely submerged. The water was brought to a temperature right before a simmer. And then I just waited for the dye to exhaust (the water turns clear and all the dye is absorbed). Once the water was clear, I removed the yarn and let it cool to room temperature in my sink. 

Then I repeated this process again with the other hank, this time using 1/8 tsp of Jacquard Cherry Red.

After both hanks of yarn were cooled to room temperature, they were washed using a little clear dish soap and hung outside to dry.

I am so surprised at how much color the yarn picked up and moved away from the original tan color. The red is a very bright color and has darker areas of red. Not a hint of brown shows through. The turquoise went teal, which is to be expected (since blue plus yellow equals green). There are some tiny speckles of brown that you can see if you stare really close, but it is pretty clearly teal or green. 

I think that this has been my most ambitious experiment to date. Not only did I want to create 6 different skeins in a series, but I also used a technique that I had never tried before. So, grab some popcorn, and join me on this very messy dyeing adventure! This week features the undyed yarn Lil’ Sharon, which is a mini-skein of Sharon. Sharon Undyed Sock Yarn is a non-wool, sock weight springy alternative to wool and is 55% Cotton, 16% Bamboo, 8% Silk, and 21% Elastic Nylon.

Mini skeins are a great way to test out new techniques or a fade set before you commit to a larger project. I’m also betting that the different fiber types take up the dye in different ways, which I’m hoping will lend a great texture to the yarn. For this set, my goal is 6 skeins where 1/3 of the skein is a rainbow and the rest is a solid color. Each of the solid colors will be different, so in the end, I will have a full rainbow.

To accomplish a harmonious rainbow, I used only primary dye colors and used those to create the secondary colors. I mixed the primary colors dye powders and 8 ounces of hot water into 3 plastic condiment bottles. I used:

•    ¼ tsp of Jacquard Sun Yellow
•    ¼ tsp of Jacquard Sky Blue
•    1/8 tsp of Jacquard Fire Red

To mix the secondary colors, I poured the primary colors into other bottles and mixed them together to get orange, purple and green.

Red + Yellow = Orange
Red + Blue = Purple
Yellow + Blue = Green

While I was mixing the colors, the mini skeins were all happily soaking in a bowl of water with 1 tbsp of citric acid. After they had been there for 30 minutes, I pulled out the first skein, squeezed out the excess liquid and laid it down on top of the copious amount of plastic cling wrap I had covered my countertop with. I took a deep breath and then started slowly pouring the green dye stock onto the yarn.

It was messy. The yarn was so wet, and the dye didn’t cover all the yarn, and I was really concerned I hadn’t made enough dye. Luckily, I was able to mop up the giant puddles to get consistent coverage. Seeing how wet the yarn was, for the rainbow portion I decided to only use the primaries and not try to add any of the secondary colors. This turned out to be a good idea judging from all the dye that was left on the cling wrap.

I wiped up the excess dye with a paper towel, and folded the cling wrap over the yarn, making sure to keep the two sections separate. And then rolled it up like a cinnamon roll. Again, I wrapped the cinnamon roll in more plastic wrap and placed it on a dye dedicated plate. Into the microwave it went for 2 minutes. (Note: If you are worried about using the same microwave for food and dye, you can wrap them in an extra layer of protection using a slow cooker bag. For me, I just ripped out a 1990s monstrosity of a microwave out of my kitchen. That monster lives in my garage now, and its where I microwave my yarn.)

I microwaved the yarn 2 more times in sets of 2 minutes. Everything out there I have read tells me to keep doing that until the dye exhausts and the leftover water was clear. I was nowhere near that, but I decided I had used more than enough dye, and it had probably set. Plus I didn’t want to totally nuke the yarn. Using tongs, I picked up the yarn roll and left it in my sink to cool to room temperature. That little roll of yarn was super-hot!

I switched tactics at this point. Clearly, I had way too much liquid between the wet yarn and the liquid dye stock. I wrapped up the remaining skeins of presoaked yarn in a towel and let it absorb a whole bunch of moisture. Then I added the main color just the same way as I did for the green skein. But before I added the rainbow, I picked up the skein by the undyed part and squeezed out the excess dye into a glass jar. This leftover dye would be used on another experiment as I didn’t want to just flush the leftover dye down the drains (both for the environment and my pocketbook). Then I wiped up the excess dye on the plastic wrap and added the rainbow bit.

I just kept doing this method for the remaining skeins. I always made sure to wrap the skeins the same way and have the rainbow part on top of the cinnamon roll. I didn’t think it really made a difference, but I wanted to be consistent. I microwaved the remaining skeins for the same amount of time.

I had some concerns about the blue because the color was so pale. It looked so washed out and it barely had any color. But I learned that this is a color that really develops during the heat set process. The Sky Blue turned out so vibrant and gorgeous.

After all the yarn rolls had cooled to room temperature, I unwrapped them. This will take way longer than you think because those coils hold in heat really well. But I rinsed the yarn and washed it with clear dish soap, towel dried them, and hung them up to dry.

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. Some of the rainbows, especially the yellow in the rainbow sections got completely overtaken. This doesn’t surprise me, because yellow is always the first to vanish. I think if I try this again in the future, I want to have the rainbow section elevated. Or I might try another technique. Either way, this was a fun process!

Lessons learned:

•    Some colors need to be heat set to really see the vibrancy
•    Too much water is your enemy with this technique
•    Just keep going even when it seems like something isn’t working, you will still get lovely results.

Summer is coming! I’m so excited about the gloriously sunny days where all I want to do is sip lemonade and hang out in a hammock. That’s the inspiration for this week’s yarn dyeing tutorial. Wanting a fun and lightweight yarn, I chose Lila. Lila Undyed Lace Yarn is a truly luscious single-ply wool and silk blend yarn that will take dyes beautifully. It is 70% Merino Extra Fine and 30% Silk.

Before I got started, I tied up the skein of yarn in 3 different places to help the yarn from getting unruly during the dyeing process. Lila is so fine I wanted to make sure I didn’t do anything to make it a tangled mess. I have a ton of embroidery floss that I have just laying around from making friendship bracelets (it’s only been 25+ years since the last time I made a friendship bracelet, it’s probably time to use up that floss!) I made sure to tie the floss loosely, so the yarn could move and not create white spots where the dye didn’t penetrate.

Dyes used are:
•    1/8 tsp of Jacquard Pink
•    1/8 tsp of Jacquard Sun Yellow
•    Speckles of Jacquard Hot Fuchsia and Golden Yellow

And as always, everything you see pictured is used only for dyeing as acid dye isn’t food safe. And it’s not pictured, but I am wearing a respirator to protect my lungs from tiny dye particles.

You’ll see my trusty brownie pan is used in this experiment. Should you wish to try this at home, you don’t really need the fancy pan, a regular pot would work. Mine was just busy dyeing something else at the time. 

I placed the yarn into the brownie pan which is stretched across two burners, turning the heat on low to get the water just before simmering. At this point, I added 1 tsp of citric acid into the water and then laid the yarn into the water. I wanted to see what would happen with just using powdered dye instead of making a dye stock. Would this lead to some interesting variations in the concentration of dye on the yarn? It’s not as dense as speckling. More like a freckling?

To add the dye to the water, I filled up my measure spoon and then dipped the spoon into the water. It’s my hope that this keeps the dye from becoming airborne and coating my kitchen in yellow and pink dye. I added Pink to one end and Sun Yellow to the other end. (If you wanted to duplicate this using a pot, you could dip dye the gradient similar to the Fiery Sunset from last week or you could put the yarn into the pot and the dye on different sides of the pot.)

Using my fork, I wiggled the yarn around to help it penetrate into the middle of the skein. I kept a constant watch on the yarn. And waited for the dye to exhaust.

I liked the color of the skein as it was, but I didn’t love it. The freckling had come through. The pink and the yellow (and in some places orange) were nice and bright, but it still seemed a little flat. Since this is all an experiment, this seemed like an excellent opportunity to play with speckles to enhance the freckles. This is also why I chose to speckle in Hot Fuchsia and Golden Yellow. They are a darker colored dye and it’s my hope they would add an extra color punch to the skein.

Using a mini strainer, I scooped up about 1/8 tsp of the powdered dye and put it in the strainer. If you are trying this, make sure to have the strainer resting on the dye bottle because a bunch of dye will immediately go through the mesh and create a mess. In retrospect, I should have put down wet paper towels to catch the stray dye particles, but I also didn’t want the paper close enough to my burners to catch fire….

In order to apply the sprinkles, I tapped the strainer over the yarn and let the sprinkles fall. I tapped Hot Fuchsia over the middle of the yarn were the two colors met and slightly overlapping the pink and yellow sections. It looked a little dark and messy, and I wasn’t sure I loved it because of the dark splotches. But that’s okay, I kept on persevering. With the Golden Yellow, I tapped the sprinkles over the yellow section. It was looking a bit more like how I had imagined it.

I let the yarn cool completely in the pan. Then I washed it with some clear dish soap and hung it outside to try. And that’s when I saw how pretty the yarn turned out. The speckling adds so much texture, and once the hank was twisted, the splotches weren’t as concentrated. It totally reminds me of summer and drinking pink lemonade. I’d call this experiment a win!

And out on the porch to dry in the glorious spring sunshine. I have found that yarn dries so much faster outside in the warm weather than it does hung on a towel bar in my laundry room. And makes a way pretty picture too!

Lessons Learned

•    Lighter colors like Pink and Sun Yellow create clear bright colors, but don't have a ton of variation.
•    Speckling is fun. And Messy

Today we continue our dye experiments by playing with dip dying! This week features Sadie, an undyed sock yarn that arrives in 70-inch / 175 cm diameter hank. This is a longer-than-typical circumference and is done so to allow for modifications in specific types of dying. It’s an 80% Merino Extrafine Superwash Wool and 20% Nylon blend, and wow, is it squishy. This yarn was selected because of its larger hank diameter, and I figured I could get a more dramatic gradient out of it. So let's see what we can do!

For color inspiration I used this intense sunset. Looking at the photo, I see blue, violet, magenta, orange and yellow. I left out the black because I felt it would be too much with all the colors and wouldn’t really add anything to the yarn. And I added in a red band to help with the transition from orange to magenta. All of the colors were mixed into 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of citric acid (the high acid lets it strike faster)

•    Yellow = 1/4 tsp Jacquard Sun Yellow
•    Orange = 1/4 tsp Jacquard Sun Yellow and 1/4 tsp Deep Orange
•    Red = 1/4 tsp Jacquard Fire Red
•    Magenta = 1/4 tsp Jacquard Hot Fuchsia
•    Purple = 1/8 tsp Jacquard Violet and 1/8 tsp Brilliant Blue
•    Blue = 1/4 tsp Jacquard Brilliant Blue

Sunset by Marks Polakovs

Out comes my trusty dedicated dye pot (remember, acid dyes aren’t food safe, so all your pots and utensils should be used only for dyeing.) Fun fact, this pot has been with me for 20 years. It was part of my first pot and pan set when I started college. The Teflon started scratching off, so it became my dedicated crafting pot.

But I digress. Let's get back to dyeing! I filled the pot with 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of water. While wearing a respirator (to protect my lungs!), the powdered dye was added directly to the pot stirred around until it was dissolved. After turning on the heat, I brought the liquid to just under simmering.

I soaked the yarn in plain water for 30 minutes, and then squeezed out the excess water with a towel. To dye this extra-long hank, I grabbed it around the middle and let the remainder rest looped over my arm. Once the water was at the desired temperature, I quickly dipped just the end of the yarn into the dye bath and immediately removed it. I repeated this maneuver several times, each time dipping the yarn a bit further in, but the dye bath was nowhere close to exhausting (when all the dye is gone, and the water is clear.) And my arm was already getting tired and there are several more colors to go! Something had to be done...

Since this is an experiment and its fun, I decided to see if I could just drape the yarn over the edge of the pot and let it just hang out while the dye was absorbed. And drum roll please, it worked! Do make sure your yarn isn’t anywhere near the burner. My stove is a gas range, and I was extra paranoid about the yarn catching on the open flame. I didn’t leave the kitchen while the dye was doing its thing. But I did catch up on my Instagram account.

Once the dye bath was getting pretty clear, I dipped the yarn back in at varying depths to get the gradient. Also, I swished around the yarn to ensure that color is deposited on all the strands. And now our water is clear! Needing to prep the next color and to let the yarn cool, I draped it over my faucet and protected the undyed part by keeping it in its own bowl.

I replenished the water in the pot so it was at the same level as before and added the orange dye to the pot and let it dissolve. And waited impatiently for the yarn to cool to a point where I could squeeze out the excess water. Remember, the yarn is at near boiling temperatures, so don’t burn your hand when trying this!

Once the yarn was cool enough (finally!) I picked it up with both hands, again looping the extra yarn over the back of my wrist and did the same dip dyeing method as before. And I let it rest on the edge of the pot folded over its self until the dyed exhausted. And guess what? This is what you do for the remainder of the colors.

Once all the colors were finally dyed, I let it cool in my sink, keep the yellow part looped over the faucet. I know from experience with watercolors that anytime you put yellow by any other color, there is a good chance that the yellow section will pick up that other color. It’s almost as bad as trying to leave a white section. Almost.

Once the yarn was cooled off, I rinsed it with cold water. Then I washed it with a bit of clear dish soap to dislodge any excess dye that wasn’t removed during the rinsing process. I always kept the yellow dye at the top of the skein out of color running paranoia. (Is that a real thing? It should be!)

And out on the porch to dry in the glorious spring sunshine. I have found that yarn dries so much faster outside in the warm weather than it does hung on a towel bar in my laundry room. And makes a way pretty picture too!

Lessons Learned

•    The red dye is super-duper extra saturated and that I probably needed to use way less of that color
•    My red section is much larger than I had anticipated because of the strong pigment. I suppose I could have dumped the dye water and added less, but I don’t want to waste pigment or wash it down the drain.

For today’s installment of Eat, Knit and Dye, I decided to try a color combination that is outside my normal intense color range. I was thinking of something like dawn at Mt. Rainier and I wanted it to be a lacy yarn, so I choose Leslie as my undyed base. Leslie is a single-ply of 100% Merino Wool superwash, perfect for intricate lace projects (656 yards / 100 gram hank.)

This is a complete experiment, so who knows what will happen.  This could be a beautiful colorway.  It could be a complete disaster.  Either way, its going to be fun to try!

Closer inspection of this gorgeous photo led me to select 5 colors: gold, coral, lavender, blue and grey. I knew I was going to be doing some color mixing to get the shades that I desired, so I decided to premix the colors into condiment bottles. Here are the recipes and all are mixed with 2 ounces of water.
   •    Gold = 1/16 tsp Jacquard Golden Ochre,  1/16 tsp Bright Yellow
   •    Coral = 1/8 tsp Jacquard Salmon
   •    Lavender = 1/16 tsp Jacquard Periwinkle, 1/16 tsp Lilac
   •    Blue = 1/18 tsp Jacquard Sky Blue, a pinch of Silver Grey
   •    Grey = 1/8 tsp Jacquard Gun Metal

Don't be afraid to change the colors to different shades of color. This is an experiment.  For example, the coral recipe is a warmer tone then that in the picture because its representing the bright pink and the orange in the picture.

Mt. Rainier by Jordan Steranka

While my colors were being mixed, I soaked my yarn in a bowl of water and 1 tsp of citric acid for 30 minutes. (Also notice that I used embroidery floss to tie the hank together in a few sections to keep the yarn from becoming a tangled mess). And then I transferred it into my trusty brownie pan and placed it over two burners on my stove. I also knew I’d be doing speckles, so I protected my stove by covering the surface with tin foil. And as always, a reminder that acid dye is not food safe, so everything you see here is used only for dyeing yarn and never for food prep.

I had this grand, glorious idea of a mottled, shifting yarn. I poured the yarn soaking water into the brownie pan. Keeping the water very shallow, parts of the yarn remained above the waterline. The dye was dripped into splotches of random color. It very quickly became apparent the dye was striking quickly, and it was only attaching to the surface of the yarn.

OK, so that didn't work. Time for a different tactic! I added more water, so the yarn was completely submerged, and then added a generous amount of dye in blocks of color. Some wiggling of the yarn with my prongs ensured the dye water was circulating. Satisfied I was getting more of the effect I wanted, I allowed the yarn to soak up all the colors, and exhaust the dye. (Exhausting the dye bath is a term that means all the color has attached itself to the fibers, and the remaining liquid is clear.)

Now that the color is fairly uniform, its time to add speckles! I decided to add the speckles in only two of the colors because I didn’t want this visually busy yarn being overwhelmed. For this yarn, I used Salmon and Gun Metal. I added  powdered dye into a tea strainer (make sure you do this over the open dye jar; or a lot of the powder will go straight through the strainer and all over your counter. (I found this out the hard way!) Using a measuring spoon, tap the side of the strainer to allow some of the dye powder to drift down into the bath and it will lightly speckle the yarn. I tapped the Salmon color over the gold, salmon, and lavender sections. I tapped the Gun Metal over all the colors.

NOW it's gorgeous. Finally done, I rinsed the yarn in the sink. Adding  a drop of clear dish soap helped to remove the excess dye. Once the water ran clear, I squeezed out the excess water with a towel and then hung the yarn it outside to dry. 

Lessons Learned

- Take care when handling dye in powdered form