I’m going to show you two of the other skeins of yarn I dyed last year.
This one is called Blueberry Smoothie. I used food coloring and Paas Easter Egg dyes. Kid (and adult) friendly and as far as I know, colorfast.
I love the blues and touch of purple.
There are a lot of light blues and undyed yarn. Nothing planned for this skein…yet.
The second dyed yarn is a red tonal, also using food coloring and Paas Easter Egg dyes.
I already knit a pair of socks and didn’t get any pictures of the skein beforehand. This is what I have left over.
The sock pattern is from Helen Stewart’s Handmade Sock Society: Scribbly Gum Socks. Once knitted up, the yarn appears as a tonal stripe that is only noticeable on the plain stockinette stitch on the back.
I dipped a plastic fork into some black liquid food coloring and touched various areas of the yarn to give add that speckled look. It’s not as pronounced as I wanted.
I’m still experimenting with dyeing my own yarns and once the weather warms up (again), I’ll try some other dyeing techniques.
This post is picture heavy. It might take some time to load.
I decided to rip out that sock and redye the yarn. It was one of three 100 gram-skeins/hanks of yarn that I dyed in the crock-pot last year (and never blogged about). The other two turned out great and I’ve knitted one already into a pair of socks.
I was cleaning out parts of the basement last summer and lo and behold I found packets of dye! Sunshine Crafts Batik dyes. Let’s just say I acquired these a long, long, long time ago in a place far away. Along with my fantastic find, I also bought some professional Jacquard dyes in some basic colors.
This is my first foray into using dyes other than food coloring and Easter egg dye and it was a great experience. In the future, I will reread the ratios of dye to water. I just winged it when I mixed the dye and the two colors were VERY concentrated giving deep, intense hues.
My original plan was to use Azure blue and Brilliant blue. I swapped out Jet back for the Brilliant blue as the Azure was blue enough.
It was warm enough last week to set my amateurish dye station on the picnic table outside. Mr. Aitch does not like the smell of wet wool and vinegar so all my dyeing is now done either in the garage or outside. And no microwave dyeing either.
L to R: Crock-pot, white vinegar, H2O, dyeing spoons, dyes, syringes, yarn, dye mixing tub, gloves.
I soaked the yarn in a water/vinegar solution overnight. In the morning I twisted the yarn so I would retain some of the lime green colors and the blues and black would blend together into a navy blue with some teal areas.
Then I placed it in my cold crock-pot with enough water and a slog of vinegar to cover. The acid in the vinegar helps the fiber to absorb the dye. It took over two hours for the water to get hot enough before I could add any dye!
Oops, I forgot to twist the yarn! The heat is on
Once everything was ready I loaded up syringes with the blue and black dyes and squirted it into the twisted skein. The dye struck almost instantly as I probably had too much vinegar in the dye mixture.
Adding dye with syringeShower curtain ring to hold hot yarnLooks like enough…
I played with adding dye in various places for about an hour. Mr. Aitch helped photograph with yarn when I checked it before untwisting it. Too much lime green was still visible so I kept squirting dye onto those areas.
…but notStill needs more dyeUntwisting yarnAdding more dyeI think that’s enough!Let it cool
The yarn sat in the dye bath until the water was clear. Then the impatient me had to wait until the yarn was cool enough to rinse. Because the dye was so concentrated, it took a long time to rinse out the extra dye…(no showers for me for at least a week! Just kidding)
Clear water. All the dye is absorbed.
The finished product.
Even though it’s not what I planned, I still love it.
The colors are so rich and varied.
Socks for sure! It takes about 65-75 grams of yarn for a pair of knit socks. I will have some leftover to use as an accent toe/heel, add with another yarn for striped socks, or the slipped stitch socks I love to knit.
Thank you for the encouragement! I did finish the January Mittens (Ravelry link) on February 1st.
Notes: Yarn: worsted weight – Lion Brand Wool-Ease in charcoal (48 g) and Caron Simply Soft in ivory (50g). Needles: cuff US #1.5 (2.5mm), body US # 2.5 (3mm).
Right mitten – December 11, 2021 – December 26, 2021 using double point needles
Left mitten – January 11, 2022 – February 1, 2022 using circular needles
Modifications: Thumb gusset added while knitting. Thumb was finished after body.
Worsted weight yarn on such small needles (think toothpick size in diameter) hurt my hands. I think that was why I was so reluctant in getting these finished. Plus I was also finishing one pair of socks and starting another pair as well. I am not a monogamous knitter.
But I did it! Yay me!
You may have noticed that I changed the direction of the Latvian Braid on the cuff.
But the GLARING difference is the yarn dominance on the thumbs.
It’s all about which yarn is held above and which is held below as to the color that is more dominant. The ivory yarn was held below the charcoal when I knit the right thumb so the ivory is more dominant. The charcoal yarn was below the ivory on the left thumb.
Yarn dominance occurs because one yarn’s strand travels slightly farther than the other, making it slightly tighter, causing it to recede, and be less dominant. The yarn traveling the shortest distance is the dominant yarn.
If you are interested, here’s a link to a short video on yarn dominance that explains this technique by Beth Brown Reinsel.
The ivory yarn was the dominant yarn on the back of the hand as I wanted the design to stand out but I reversed the yarn dominance on the palm. I wanted the ivory to be in the background and the charcoal to stand out more.
I didn’t write down which yarn was dominant when I knit the thumbs.
It’s a lesson I hope I will remember in the future. Or I could wait and knit both thumbs one right after the other.
Knitting In Flashes 