The Evil Cycle

So I have found that I really enjoy dyeing.   The problem is I will never use all the yarn I dye,  and I want to dye more.  So I am hoping to set up a shop on Artfire and sell the yarn I dyed, so I can buy more yarn to dye.    It's insane how addictive it is just playing around with string and color.   I'm never going to be a big time dyer.  I enjoy the process too much and I like to take my time.  But being able to support my dyeing habits would be totally awesome.  I haven't taken pictures yet of the yarn I'm listing but will in the next few days.

Not Yarn Related

This is now my new favorite word
 Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

I'm A Slacker

So I really was going to dye up some mohair,  but can't seem to find it anywhere :/   So I waited until I had everything I needed to dye with the acid dyes that I received.  Because I'm a big scaredy cat I first decided to dye some yarn I received as a gift with direct orders to throw it in the dyepot.  It's a nice blue, but much to bright for my taste.

I put one skein in the pot and added some purple and black.   I like it better now and plan to knit me a hat with it.

I put the second skein in the dyepot and used only black.  I plan to knit a hat for Ruben with it.

After these two skeins I got feeling ambitious, with some help from liquid courage.  I decided it was time to dye the sock yarn.  First I wrote LOVE using black dye on it....

Then I smooshed it all down using my GLOVED fingers, only to find out that my left glove had holes in two of the fingers...

I then filled in with the purple dye, which in my either excitement or buzzed stupor, promptly forgot to take a picture of.   Oh well time to steam!  Steamed it for 30 minutes and let it cool.  It took forever to cool down.  I then opened it up and promptly forgot to take a picture again before I ran off to rinse it.   I let it dry and FINALLY remembered to take a picture of it....

I really like the way all of them came out.  I'm now hoping to get a few more colors to mess around with.   Now to just figure out what socks I will be knitting with it.  It will of course be a pattern out of the book I received in the gift.

NEW STUFFS!!!! aka Squeeeeeeeeeeee

So today a package from someone wonderful arrived in the mail today.  It contained Sock Innovation by Cookie A, a skein of KP Gloss in Bare,  and 2 bottles of Jacquard dye in Purple and Jet Black. 

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I have been wanting to play with acid dyes but haven't been able to so far.  Now my big chance has arrived!

Knitter's/Dyer's Porn:

 

When I opened the box my first thought was LOVE!  So my idea is to dye the yarn purple,  and write LOVE on the skein in black.  I have no idea how this should be done so that the black doesn't just blend in with the purple,  so my day will be spent doing research on this.    I can't wait!!   Also,  today was planned to dye some mohair with wilton's black.  Hopefully I'll get some nice breaking.

Over Dyeing Bacon Yarn

So I broke out the Wilton's, divided up the yarn I had left from the Bacon Shawl (see previous post) and over dyed it using Violet, Black and Delphinium Blue.  After consulting the brutally honest hoars it was decided that the shawl should be over dyed in Black.   It's soaking now so press your thumbs for me.   I'll post when it's finished.  Until then, a picture of the samples....

Unscientific Science of Dyeing

So I have gotten a few comments (not here, but in emails and pm's) about how I'm not very scientific about the dyeing I have been doing.  I'm not stressing it.  I only do it for fun, not profit and a little chaos never killed anyone.  For those wanting a step by step guide with precise amounts of yarn, coloring, vinegar and specific times, this is probably not the blog to be reading.  This is for fun only.  I'm not mass marketing or selling anything I dye, and have no plans to.   This could change of course but let's be realistic, IF I did find a way to get consistent results every time it would probably be in my best interest if I were going to sell it to not share all my secrets.  So that being said.....

I did another round of breaking Wilton's using using Delphinium Blue on KP Bare Merino.   I didn't measure anything.  Just a glub of vinegar in the soaking water with some yarn, some Wilton's, crockpot for an hour added about a teaspoon of vinegar another hour, added a teaspoon more vinegar,  set over night to cool, hung to dry. 

Results:  A bit too pastel colored for me, but Wilton's broke nicely.

Remember the kool-aid dyeing I did?  It got knitted up into the Annis Shawl by Susanna IC.   I hate it.  Not the design, but the colors.  I think it looks like bacon and I'm not a big fan.   Since I don't know anyone I dislike enough to give them a bacon colored shawl I decided to take the yarn I had left over and attempt to over dye it with Wilton's.  I have 3 colors that I will try out on it and see what happens.  Black, Delphinium Blue and Violet.  I'll post when they're finished.   But for a now, a picture of the Bacon Annis.

Breaking Wilton's

So I've been wanting to break Wilton's for awhile now after seeing all the beautiful yarn everyone has been getting in the What A Kool Way to Dye group.   An amazingly awesome person hunted down Wilton's for me since I couldn't find it in my area and sent me Black, Delphinium Blue and Violet.  (Thanks Jenarita!)  I've looked around and there's really no step by step directions on how to do this so I threw caution to the wind and grabbed up some KP Bare Merino I had left over from Ruben's Sweater. 

I was not at all scientific about it,  I didn't measure much of anything, but I was having fun!   I soaked the yarn (approx. 30 yards) in some room temp. water with a glub of vinegar for about an hour.

Then I mixed up a bit of Wilton's black in hot water,  I'm guessing 1/16 of a teaspoon, then added room temp water to the mix,  about 5 cups water total and about a 1/2 tsp of vinegar.  I squeezed out the water from the yarn, placed it in the crockpot,  poured the dye mix over it, turned the crockpot to low and let it cook for about an hour.   I then placed about a tablespoon of vinegar into the water and let it cook another hour.  Shut off the crockpot and went to bed.   In the morning I rinsed the yarn out in room temp. water and hung it to dry.  
I think I used too much dye for the amount of yarn because it came out REALLY dark.   But it did break and you can see the different colors.  Can't wait to do it again!    And here's the result.