Ball up and Dye!!

After reading several posts and forums on hand dying your own yarn, I decided to give it a shot. I attempted to dye "self striping" yarn with coffee, a tip I read online as well. Lets just say, the results were not pretty. I was skeptical to try it again, and have thought about using several different methods. Kool-Aid, food coloring, and Rit fabric dye. I have used Rit fabric dye to dye a shirt that I accidentally ruined with bleach. It works wonderfully, and is relatively easy. I have "dyed" some fabric with Kool-Aid in the past as well, but obviously not on purpose! So here are my supplies for my weekend adventure in yarn dying:


I bougt some Paton's 100% wool to try my hand at Kool-Aid and food coloring, but did not get to it this weekend. Maybe next weekend. In a small apartment, limited space limits all the projects I want to do at one time! I decided to dye some Paton's Grace using the Rit dye. My goal was to make truly self striping yarn with it. After wrapping 3 skeins of yarn around my dining room chairs, I went to it.

Here is the result after dying and rinsing. I put 1/3 of the length of the skeins in the dye bath for about 20 minutes. The package directions were definitely a guideline. It recommended using 2 pkg of dye in 3 gallons of water to ensure color saturation. I used 2 pkg of dye in 2 gallons of water. It also recommended leaving the fabric/yarn in the dye bath for 30 minutes. After 20, I was happy with the darkness and saturation of the color. After the initial 20 minutes, I took the second 1/3 and dipped it in the dye bath about 4 times to gain a lighter purple color. The last 1/3 I left white for contrast. Here is the finished product. I hanked one and balled 2 to see the coloring.

I plan on making a pair of nice cotton socks. I am a little concerned about the possibility of color bleeding when the fabric gets washed. I will post the finished project once these socks are finished.

Speaking of socks....I am hooked! I have knit one and only one sock in my entire knitting experience. It is understanding how socks can become an addiction. The first time I knit the heel flap, I was excited. The first heel turn, I stood up and did a little feel good dance. The gusset, not my favorite, but one thing I will put up with to get to the toe decreases and grafting. Grafting! With all the cautionary instructions on how difficult grafting can be, I was expecting this to be my Everest of sock making. Well, needless to say, it went smoothly and beautifully. Not so scary after all! Here is the finished sock, on a homemade hanger sock blocker no less...Paton's 100% wool on size 6 needles. Its mate is still balled up in the stash...someday to be reunited!!

This is my latest project (one of many!!). A sock, knitted in Austermann sock yarn, I believe. I think I threw away the label in my cleaning frenzy today. I decided to try a pattern, but nothing too complicated, so I am doing the leg and instep in seed stitch after about 1 1/2 inches of 2x2 ribbing. I am excited to see the finished project and will try my hardest to not to fall victim the "second sock syndrome." I don't consider the lack of a mate on my first sock to be an attack of SSS, but rather a "practice" sock.

Now, off to work on my sock, which I will dub "Peachy Keen" !!