Category: Kinky Yarn

I’m going to be honest. I had no plan for this. I just let my whims take me where it wanted to go. After all, it’s just yarn, and if I make a disaster, that’s okay. It can always be overdyed. Plus, it gives me another chance to work with Kinky Yarn. 

I have to say, I’m obsessed with this yarn. I love the coil that it comes in, it feels so substantial. And at 200 grams of 100% Superwash Wool, it’s no wonder why. And it looks so cool when knitted or crocheted up. Seriously, you have got to check out this yarn!

First, I filled up a bowl of water, and let the Kinky coil sit in it for 24 hours. I wanted to make sure it was as saturated as possible. It’s kind of amazing how much air is in the fibers, so I pressed down on it several times to make sure all the air bubbles had escaped.

After 24 hours, I set up a pot with some water and 1/8 tsp of Jacquard Fire Red Acid Dye, and no acid. Since acid and heat is what makes the dye set, I was curious to see how it would affect the color absorption. Again, I let the pot sit for 24 hours. Plenty of time to get supersaturated, and besides, it was bedtime.

While the yarn marinated, I thought about what to do next. For some reason, my 6th grade science fair popped into my mind. One of my classmates did a project on Capillary Action, which is where water absorbs upwards. So hey, I learned something and was able to use it!

Back to the yarn! I added 1 tbsp of citric acid to the water and brought the water up to near simmering. The dye didn’t exhaust fully, so I soaked up the rest of it with an extra hank of random yarn and let the Kinky cool to room temperature.

I rooted around in my dye collection and brought out some jars of left-over dye that would be perfect for this experiment. First, I filled up the bottom centimeter of the pan with leftover highly concentrated blue dye. The Kinky was rewrapped into a very loose coil and placed on top of the blue dye. I let the yarn sit for a few hours. Again, the dye didn’t exhaust, but I poured the leftover back into the jar. 

I felt the yarn might be a little plain, so I refilled the bottom of the pan with a centimeter of leftover highly concentrated orange dye. I flipped the coil over and let the other edge sit in the orange mixture for a few more hours.

Finally, I rinsed out the excess dye. The coil was placed in some fresh water and a 1 tbsp of citric acid and brought to just below simmering. No dye came floating out and this ensured that everything was heat set. The coil was then set out to dry.

I have to admit; the outside doesn’t look all that exciting. Although I think Jacquard Fire Red is the most perfect red there is, the yarn lacked the color punch I crave.

That is until I saw inside! The Capillary Action worked, and the orange and blue absorbed in to create a delightful color explosion. Unfortunately, this only happened on the yarn that was on the outside of the wrapped coil, but I think if I wrapped it looser next time, I would get it all the way through.

Remember how last week’s dye experiment had so much dye left over? I used it up on this project. I don’t like to dump unused dye down the drain because first off, its money that is just being washed away. Second, I don’t want the dye getting into the water supply and harming marine life. (Did you know the Puget Sound in Seattle has so much caffeine in it from our wastewaters? It’s true, look it up!)

I frequently have glass jars of unexhausted dyes that I use on yarns to make mystery colorways. I’ll have to write a post on that in the future, but for now, I have two pots of dye using Jacquard Acid Dyes in colors Turquoise and Hot Fuchsia. I’ve done a bunch of gradients before, but I wanted to see how it would work in pots.

This week’s yarn of choice is Kinky Yarn, a 100% Superwash Wool that comes in a nifty tube, which is just perfect for dyeing gradients because you don’t have to make your own. The coil of yarn was soaked in water for 2 hours before starting. I unrolled half of the coil and started dipping it into the dye bath.

I draped the yarn over the edge of the pot, made sure the coil was nowhere near the flame, and let the dye (finally!) exhaust.

The pink end was pulled out of the hot water and cooled to the point I could touch it. Then other end was uncoiled, and I repeated the same dipping into the Turquoise. I made sure the Fuchsia and Turquoise overlapped to create lovely shades of purple.

Once I was happy with the overlap, I let the coil hang out in the dye bath until the dye had exhausted.

Using this method, I highly suspected that there was unexhausted dye inside the coil, so I put it all (and the Twisted Skein from last week) into the water and let it heat for another 15 minutes until the water was completely clear. The yarn was rinsed, patted dry with a towel and hung up to dry.

I’m pleased with how this yarn turned out. I should note the Hot Fuchsia is so intensely bright that it blew out on my camera. I’m okay with the near glowing brightness. I do wish there was more of a gradient overlap. I think this isn’t my favorite way of getting smooth color changes. But I’m glad I tried it because now I know!