Thursday, February 21, 2008

FO - Hand dyed yarn

Yesterday I dyed some yarn using the Knit Picks Bare Superwash Merino/Nylon yarn I had ordered. After figuring out how I wanted the yarn, I got right to work. At first I was going to have 3 colors in the skein but last minute decided that two would be enough. Using some Kool-Aid, I used 3 packets for the orange (wish I would've used another packet or 2) and 3 packets of LemonAid and 1 packet of Lemon-Lime for the green. It took me longer to prepare the yarn than it did to dye it. Lucky for me, the girls were more interested in playing than helping me. I could just see James coming home to an orange and green kitchen.


All skeined up

Using my daughters chairs I prepared my yarn into 2 skeins. Wrapping the yarn around each "section" a few times then going up to the next "section".

Dyed

The green section took right to the dye and while it still came out with that "hand dyed splotchyness" (which I love) it still looks great. The orange however, some really absorbed the dye and some parts didn't. It still looks nice though, I just would've liked it a little more solid. There's always next time though.

Hanging to dry

Then of course hanging it up to dry is always the part that I hate because I want to play with it, knit it up, see exactly how it looks. But patiently I waited (and waited) then finally got too impatient and placed it over my heating vent in the kitchen. K. and L. kept going in there smelling it. (Yes, which brings me to a point to get across, children do not understand why you would want to soak yarn in a sugary goodness drink mix. While they did think that it was cool they were both just puzzled by what I was doing. hhhmmmmm............and they wonder why I hardly ever make this stuff for them and make them drink milk, water, fruit juices and occassionally a soda or two.)

This morning it was all fully dryed and ready for me to wind it all up. It does look really pretty and I can't wait to knit it up to see exactly how it'll look. I'm thinking (finally) the Jaywalker pattern would be great for these. We'll see.

FO - Hand Dyed with Kool-Aid Yarn

5 comments:

"Alma mi y yo" said...

Hi there my friend! I think your yarn looks great! What a great experience! I always wanted to do it but I haven't yet, some day!
I love all your new stuff, yarn, books, needles!
I also would like to try to knit another pair of socks in two circulars too, I don't like DPN's!!
I always think about you!

Love
Sabrina

Anonymous said...

Woo-hoo! You're doing it!!

Um, I have a favor to ask. We are making a banner for the "Look what I made" group. And I was wondering if we could include an image of something you made. LOL, I don't want it to be just my stuff, how embarassing!

Angie said...

Oh yes yarntherapy, that would be fine. Any image you'd like to use just go ahead. Thank you so much for asking. And I wouldn't be embarssed of just using your stuff, your stuff is always amazing.

~Sabrina~ Seen on your other blog that you guys went snowboarding. It looked like alot of fun!

Just go for it on dying the yarn. I like using Kool-Aid because there are no chemicals that I have to worry about. I'm thinking of soaking it in some yellow to try and soften the color, it's waaaay to brite for my taste.

KB said...

It looks like crazy spaghetti! I can't wait to see what you turn it into.

I worked at a vintage store in college and my boss used to raise her own bunnies, collect their fur, spin it, and knit stuff with it. It's an amazing process.

Angie said...

Sounds like fun! It's (eventually) going to be a pair of socks. I knitted up a swatch of it and it's a little too bright for my taste so I'm think of dying it down with some yellow.