May 2006-July2006
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Dabbling with Dyeing
I decided to dye my own sock yarn for PS2 this colour round. Mostly because I couldn't find anything that really suited me.
I picked up some dye - the kind you need to cook for 20-30 minutes [what was I thinking about?] - and started with KnitPicks Bare.
I have seen people doing this online - well, like most things it looked a lot easier to do than it proved to be.
I used one pot of Royal Blue and one of Black - watered into a grey.
See those yellowy brown spots? Yeah. That was me, cooking the yarn. I wondered what that smell was.
After those 2 colours were done I placed the other end in a pot of Navy Blue - which totally looked purple and had me a little worried initially.
Not taking a lesson from the yellow spots I left the room to check blogs. Another 20 - 30 minutes watching wool sit in dye did not appeal. Well...I came back to find that the Navy Blue had seeped its way throughout the yarn. No more White and no more Grey. As pictured above.
I considered leaving it that way but I really wanted grey. So I went back to the plastic wrap and microwave method and overdyed the center yarn. Which resulted in this:
It is now drying and waiting to be wound and knit into fabulous PS2 sockies.
Next time I am going to skip the entire pot experience and stick with the plastic wrap and the microwave. Cleaner. Easier. Clearer colours. Faster. Much Faster.
Still no White - but I am considering using a colour remover which I also bought along with the dye.
Next Post: 10 Weird Things About Me
It would appear 5 are not enough as I have been tagged!
Labels: Project Spectrum 2, Socks
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Hey, that yarn turned out really well! Pretty! I've only tried Kool Aid.
Hey, I too think that this turned out great! Gosh, I haven't yet tried hand-dyeing yarn out of sheer fear to mess everything up - not just the yarn, but also myself, the kitchen, the house... ;)
Looking forward to reading your "10 weird things"!
It turned out really well. I like it.
If you did decide to try the pot again, make sure the skein in really wet and put the end you aren't dying in a heat proof dish of water. Then you won't need to worry about cooking it. Also, if you remember to pour a bit of water over the part you aren't dyeing, it helps with the bleeding.
I take night shots on a low pixel, low quality setting using the landscape mode and infinity focus. I also rested the camera on a post near our front door to help steady it.
oh pretty! Don't change a thing!! You don't *have* to do white - you have two other colors there already!
I have never tried the micro method, but your yarn looks great _ i love it.
Bravo! Very pretty yarn you dyed there! Don't walk away from your yarn is my advice:) I totally can't wait to see this knitted up into something as I am sure you can't wait to see it too.
I think the yarn looks nice! Even if it's not quite what you were going for, it's still pretty great. :0)