Chaos Reborn: Hand Dyeing

Do you ever have a super clear vision of what you are looking for, but nothing is quite there? That is what happened when I was in search of some sport to DK weight yarn in "an unnatural green". Fortunately I found something super close, and I am not afraid to experiment.

Here is what we started with: a skein of Mirasol Yarn Kancha that I picked up at Mind's Eye Yarn. One of the neat things about this yarn is that it is a cotton/wool yarn, but instead of being a blend, it has two plies, one of each fiber. Since the wool would take the acid dye and the cotton would not, this meant I would potentially be able to keep some of the visual texture that I really liked about the original skein.

It was definitely in the right ballpark, but a bit more on the unnatural yellow side compared with what I wanted. So I broke out some Jacquard acid dye in Kelly Green (care of Dharma Trading Company).

I did a couple of tests to see how the dye would take. The mini skein to the left is on the Mirasol Kancha, The center is the same dye bath (same concentration and duration) on a 100% white wool yarn that you see to the right. Fun!

Since I was pleased with the test skein, I went ahead a did the rest of the skein, and the final result looked like this:

In the picture here it looks moderately even, but it has some great tonal variation in person. Super pleased!

The Mending Bag

Like many crafty people I know, I have a mending pile. It is filled with items with small tears and rips, items to be be hemmed, and other assorted things that I am convinced that I could fix... That is if anything ever came out of the black hole which is that pile. You see, the mending bag is really where things go to die.

I did manage to hem a few pairs of pants after we moved, but then again the bag was immediately refilled with a few items from my housemate that I was sure we could save.

One of them was this wrap/hanging that had been left in a window and had been sun damaged. The full length of it had been damaged, though it was signifiantly worse in some areas.

Here you can see the extent of the damage. Side by side we have an undamaged section next to a sun bleached one. Nothing we couldn't solve with careful use of dye right? Fortunately I already had in the craft stash some RIT dye in cornflower blue that looked like it might work.

Well it took 6 months to finally get around to working on it, but now it is done. This was a good start to an attempt this year actually fixing the items that have gone to the mending basket instead of just letting them die. (Heh, the pun was unintentional.) I suppose that means I should go hem some more pants now...

Dyeing In the Ball?!

I am pretty sure I originally spun this yarn in 2006, but I can't find any reference to it in my archives. It started off just as a white fleece, which I spun into a crazy thick and thin bulky two-ply. Then I tried to dye it with cake dye, but I didn't have a concentrated enough die bath and/or the wool was not fully wetted. The result was disappointingly pale areas of blue and pink on a white yarn.

Then I decided that I really wanted to knit this yarn, but I just didn't love the colors enough to do so. Solution? Overdye! (Sorry, I really wish I had a pre-over-dyeing picture. As I said, I thought I had blogged these before....)

I had been wanting to try this technique for dyeing a yarn directly in the ball, and this seemed like a good oppurtunity. It is not just an illusion of the photograph, the top of each of these really is a little greener and the bottom a little tealer. (Is tealer a word? I guess it is now.)

You will see this yarn again shortly as I have already cast on with it.

Inkberry Dyeing

Recently I was really inspired by some wool that Falathwen had dyed with pokeberries, which I had always grown up knowing as inkberries. With such readily available, and generally unwanted materials, this seemed like genius! She had gotten a gorgeous red color, though magentas and mauve are also pretty typical results. The really interesting part of this natural dye-good is that there are so many conflicting instructions on how to do it.

But here is what I did:

• Picked ~4 cups berries (picked off the stems)
• Boiled in a quart of white vinegar for 30 minutes
• Mordanted 8 oz wool with alum (just enough water to fully wet
• Squeezed berries with cheese cloth to have just a dye bath without floating bits
• Leave wool in vinegar/berry bath with all of mordanted water for a week

As an aside, please buy Heinz vinegar if you are in the market for white vinegar. Most of the vinegar you find at the store is made from petroleum products, rather than renewable sources, but Heinz is not.

Another piece of advice is to wear gloves. Getting the pink color off you hands isn't a big deal when it is just juice, but the hot vinegar/berry mixture does not go away for a couple days... Don't ask me how I know.

After rinsing, the 4 oz of white roving I had (some additional un-dyed corriedale on the right) from Misty of Geek Farm Life, I had a fabulously vivid magenta.

Lucy of Mind's Eye Yarns (and her etsy shop) had once talked to me about how if you want a really true red, your best bet was to start with a golden base yarn, rather than a while or ivory one. I tucked that thought away for a while, but this was totally the moment to give it a try.

I am ever so very pleased with the resulting 4 oz of worsted wool I over-dyed from a deep amber. Chiquita helped too, and even she thought this was pretty neat. We may have to go hunting more berries before the season is over.

Recycled Hat

Today I finished weaving in the ends and over-dyeing this hat to be donated to a Warmer Winters, a local charity that provides warm clothing to some of the area's homeless that I have mentioned previously. I had finished the knitting of this hat a little bit ago, but hadn't gotten around to finishing it.


The yarns here are all from the same recycled 100% wool sweater that I first used to experiment with dyeing. The purple was my first adventure with kool-aid dyeing. The blue was my first attempt with Wilton's icing dyes. And the orange was from my only try with beets. I figured j-random guy might not be thrilled with the colors so I over dyed it black with Wilton's icing dye.

Stash Down Yardage: ~135 yards going by weight
Total Stash Down Mileage: 0.93 miles

Dayglow Yarn

When we were first talking about getting me a spinning wheel we talked about a lot of pros and cons. It turns out though that it's major advantage was one we never considered. It is that I do a lot of thinking while I spin. Stuck on a research problem? I spin. Considering what I need to do for someone? I spin. Just for all the help it has done my research alone I think it has proven it's worth.This yarn was one such, where I spun it just to think. I didn't worry about color order and just let it spin up to the gauge it wanted to (mostly worsted after making into a 2-ply but with some sport weight and bulky spots). The important thing was just to keep my hands busy so that my mind was free.
You may remember this roving as the one that I dyed with leftover easter egg dye this year. At the time it was done in Project Spectrum colors, but I didn't get it spun up before the color set changed. The shades are a little dayglow for me, and I was thinking of just creating a Dulaan item with it, but Chiquita is already inquiring about items for her.

74.2 g/54 m correidale from Three Elms Farm

A Good Day to Ply

Summer weather has been here, which makes it a great time to hang out newly plied yarn out to dry after it's bath. We just found out from our landlord that they will be replacing our little deck at the end of June, so I have to get in my use of it before it becomes a construction area. (But yay for a new deck!)

112 g/92 m merino/tussah silk from Mind's Eye Yarns

First up, I needed to finish spinning and plying this beautiful merino/tussah silk roving that I had bought from Mind's Eye Yarns. I had originally started this for Project Spectrum when blue, white and grey were still the colors. It sat unloved on my spinning wheel for too long as we dealt with replacing the brake knob.

This yarn is absolutely delicious, and I am contemplating keeping it for myself. I have no idea what I would knit with it but is is so shiny and soft. I may have to pick up more during the Mind's Eye Yarns anniversary sale.

37 g/ 34 m merino wool

I also had a little roving left from the purple merino I dyed, spun and made into a hat and mitten set, so I played around with getting a finer yarn. It plied up at a fingering weight, but after soaking it bloomed to more of a dk weight yarn. This little skein was so small and cute. What could it possibly become? I welcome suggestions.

70 g/ 64 m correidale yarn from Three Elms Farm

I also spun the bleeding heart roving that I had dyed a while back. While I was at the wheel working with the previous skeins, it suddenly occurred to me that this would make the perfect gift for someone if I could just get it spun up and labeled in time. Hopefully they will like it.

Chiquita's FOs

My daughter has been working on lots of great creative stuff recently, so I thought I would write an entry on some of it.

The first thing was actually her project from last week's sewing class. It is a double sided elasticized headband that is super cute. She wears it all the time and has been getting tons of compliments.

Also, with some of the leftover egg-dye, she dyed some yarn that she says that she wants to knit. It was originally some white Knit Picks Palette, which makes me nervous that it will be to splity for her though. I guess we will see!

And here it is wound into a center pull ball. I love it even more after seeing the colors all mixed up.
And her other big project at sewing class has been a baby blanket for her soon-to-be cousin. This blanky is so snuggly and warm.
And at 36" square it will make a good crib blanket, floor cover or lap blanket. She is so excited about the coming of the new baby.

SPS: Easter Egg Dye

Like many of you, our Sunday was filled with lots of eggs and dyeing.
Here is Chiquita working on her eggs. The key to this process is lots of newspaper to protect the table! Can you spot my Project Spectrum striped egg in the back?
Then after the little one was in bed I broke out the fiber. Here I used the leftover pink, green and yellow to dye some of Misty's correidale roving and then steam set the dye.
How great are these colors? I know a lot of people look down on "non-professional dyes" for their lack of many shades and color intensities, but I am absolutely loving the brights at the moment.
I know I won't get to spin this before April is over, but I hope to get to it in May.

Stormy Winter Sky

My last few rovings that I have done have been a bit on the bright side, so I wanted to try for something a bit more subdued. Ahah, I thought. This month's project spectrum colors includes grey. What if I use some to tone down the brights I get from the Wilton's dyes? And so I did this roving using Jaquard acid dye (in black), citric acid, Wilton's icing dye (in aqua), and some more Correidale roving from Misty of Three Elms Farm.


I really like how this turned out, and I think that it will spin up with some nice bright flashes balanced with some darker brooding ones. Now I just need to poke the love of my life to get working on my wheel. (No it is still not fixed.) I have 54g, so I am not sure what weight I want to spin it, but I definitely want to make it into a plied yarn.

Two New Rovings

As I was telling Robbyn and Ev Thursday night at Chatters, yesterday I was feeling inspired to dye some rovings. So I pulled out some Correidale roving from Misty of Three Elms Farm, and got to work. From the giant ball of roving, I made 2 lengths of 4 oz each. Then I set them to soaking in warm water with a few drops of dish detergent.

This first one was done with a semi-cold pour method. The water was just over 100*F when I started adding the pink dye, letting dye gradients do a lot of the work as it spread out from the glob (technical term there) of Wilton's Icing Dye in Dusty Rose. Then I let it come up to just under 190*F so that the dye would strike quickly for the greens.

My thought process for these was to mimic one of my favorite plants, the bleeding heart. It is mostly greens, with some subtle variations mimicking the play of light and shadow on this shade tolerant plant. Then there are several shades of pink, the brightest being that distinctive "traditional bleeding heart" bright pink with touches of white.

Materials for this included: roving, citric acid, Wilton's icing dye in dusty pink, leaf green, and kelly green, and 2 squeeze bottles.


This second roving was done with a hot pour method. I got the bath and wool up to just under 190*F before adding in the dye. This was super easy especially with the squeezy bottles. I really want to play with this method more.

This roving reminded me of algae. Okay, maybe not the most glamorous of living beings, but they are still mighty useful! Materials for this included: roving, citric acid, Wilton's icing dye in leaf green and aqua, and 2 squeeze bottles.

I have to say that this wool was pure pleasure to work with. It's pale color made it take color very well. And although it is soft, it really stood up to my not always super gentle handling without any inadvertent felting. I just wish my wheel was fixed so that I could spin some up. I am not sure enough of my drop spindle abilities to use these rovings with a drop spindle just yet.

Hand Dyed Child's Raglan

Hey look a sweater! Ok I am cheating. This is not a recent FO. Actually I finished it in June having worked on it for most of the Boston Pride Parade. Of course immediately there after it was much to warm to wear a wool sweater.Plus I didn't have a blog to share it with you all then. So here it is, just in time for the rather chilly mornings we have been getting in the early hours before school. The yarn was a recycled 100% wool cabled sweater. Actually that sweater was also the source of the beet dyeing I did recently.

We dyed the yarn with grape koolaid, and I learned a lot of neat things about the relative reaction rates of red and blue food dyes. I actually purposefully greated a dye gradient by folding the skeins of yarn in the dye pot so that each was equally on the top and bottom. Then I sprinkled the koolaid on the surface of the already warm water and wool, occassionally poking with a pair of chopsticks.

If you look on the back of a package of Koolaid, you will discover that it has both red and blue dye to make the purple color we know of as grape. What I discovered was that the red reacted almost immediatedly on the surface, with only a small amount being able to diffuse to the center layer and then react. The blue on the otherhand had such a relatively slow reaction time that diffusion was dominate, to the point where in the end I actually had leftover light blue that had not reacted.

This resulted in a red purple at the top, a light purple in the center and a light blue towards white at the bottom. I had really pictured a variegared purple in my head though. In order to get this finished product, I ended up taking the yarn at this point out of the bath, mixing a homogenous mixture of 2 more packets, and then dumping the yarn back in. The results... well you can see for yourself.

I am pretty happy with how both the color and the knitted object turned out, even if there was some pooling happening. The pattern was just a bottom up raglan sweater. Theoretically it was for a size 10 (plus an extra inch in length for her long torso) because I wanted my daughter to have some time before she outgrew it. It looks like another sweater is in order though, since I don't think this one will fit past this winter.

KOAC Postscript

I talked to a bunch of people about various things that I said I would mention in my blog for future reference. So in the order I jotted things down on my sticky note:

1. Knit Pro 2.0 is a website where you can upload a photo or image, and it will convert the image to a chart for either cross stitch or knitting. If you are going to use it for knitting then you should first stretch the image to compensate for your row versus "column" guage, unless of course they are square.

2. I buy my citric acid for dyeing wool frm Mountain Rose Herbs. I have been exceedingly happy with both their prices and customer service. They carry cosmetic ingredients, teas, herbs, and essential oils.

3. About the "Stained Glass" double knit hat pattern: It is knit in Koigu KPPPM P113 and Gems Opal sock yarn in black. I was thinking about it on the way home, and I am not sure if I want to try submitting such a pattern to someplace like Knitty or Magnknits or something. If not I will definately post the pattern here. If so I will still need test knitters, so let me know if you were really interested in the pattern.

Beet Dyeing

Sunday we canned beets (mmm must resist eating newly canned items). One of the by-products of this process is the liquid from initially cooking the beets. Given its great color and amazing staining power, that got me to thinking. How well would this dye yarn?

So I tossed a hank of pre-washed, recycled white (superwash?) wool in to the liquid and added some (food grade) citric acid. (No exact measuments here, about 2 generous teaspoons.) Could you use vinegar? Absolutely, but I don't care for wool smelling like it, and I had the citric acid around anyways for making bathbombs. Although I did have some alum in the house, I didn't use it. This skein was unmordanted other than the acid.

Notice the great gradiation in color. I started with a homogenous initial liquid. The pot that this was done in however was for the most part unagitated. (No CSTR here.) The orangey-tan bits were closest to the heat source, while the more brick colored bits were closer to the surface. The picture here was after several rinsings in sudsy water. Some of the red came out, but what is there still seems to be fairly permenant. I have read that the red from beets is water soluble though.