Thursday, May 18, 2006

To Dye For

I got a few skeins of Knitpicks Dye-Your-Own a couple of weeks ago. My husband is out of town this week, so I thought this was the perfect time to go ahead and dye it without him here to complain about the mess!

So I got my Kool-Aid, which, as it turns out, I bought way too much of, and I got to dyeing. Having never done this before, I was a little apprehensive, but after the first skein, I realized there really wasn't anything I could do to screw it up, so it was a lot more fun after that.

My first skein, which I call "Bubbles" (because naming your colorways is at least half the fun of dyeing), was made with Pink Lemonade, Lemon Lime, Blue Raspberry, and Lemonade.

The second one I did, "Poppy", was done with Strawberry, Black Cherry, and Pink Lemonade. On this one, I dyed the whole thing with a very diluted Pink Lemonade, then added the other colors.

The third, "SailAway", was made with varying concentrations of Lemon Lime and Blue Raspberry.

With all three, I soaked them in the sink, then laid them out on a layer of plastic and paper towels, then added color with a medicine dropper.

Here they are unwound and drying outside in the sun.....


Now they are wound into sloppy skeins......

And, finally, wound into little yarn cakes. They look so yummy! And they smell good too.

Bubbles, SailAway, Poppy

I hate to play favorites, but I'm thinking SailAway is my favorite. Followed by Poppy. Bubbles is just a little too cloying for me, and I don't like it as much as I thought I would. Maybe it would be a good felting yarn, if I can find a project using 440 yards of fingering weight wool.

Or if there's someone out there who loves it and would like to make a pair of socks with it, email me and I'll send it to you.


It was definitely a fun process, and I'd love to do it again, although maybe next time with a superwash wool. I didn't notice any felting going on, but I was very, very careful about that. Still, it's never fun to have handwash only socks, just on general principle.

And thanks to Stephanie at Fringe! for winding the yarn cakes, and spending hours untangling Bubbles. And thanks to Eric too for helping out with the detangling.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't dyeing addictive? I only have one more skein of undyed right now...and I'm tempted to dye again. Ordering more in the mail!

Looks like you did a great job dyeing! Do you think of going beyond kool-aid and using wash fast acid dyes?

Melissa said...

You did a great job! I love dyeing!! I need to get some more sock yarn to dye, but haven't broken down and ordered yet.

cauchy09 said...

Congratulations! Those are some really cool dye jobs. You are well on your way to a daily-dyeing habit.

Catherine said...

Oh my goodness, I would love to make socks out of bubbles! Please send it my way! I'll even try felting a bag for you out of it. :-) My e-mail is cat(dot)mock(at)gmail(dot)com. I am hoping to do some yarn dying tomorrow!

kay_okc said...

MMmmm I love poppy! I can't wait to see it knitted up.

Melinda said...

Ooo, pretty. I especially like the red.

Liz said...

Jinx on the title!

You can always re-dye the Bubbles to get something you like better. I put all my dyes in bowls and then nuked parts of the yarn in that. Some of the colors were not as intense as I wanted, so I added more dye and re-nuked them to get a more saturated color. I had to bump up some of the blues with food grade dyes as well because, despite adding 5 packets of KoolAid, the color was pretty weak.

LavenderSheep said...

You have really pretty taste in colors. Dyeing is so addictive. I'm sure that you will be on to commercial dyes soon.

B said...

WOW those look GREAT! I am afraid if I try to dye I will get adicted to it! I don't need anymore addictions you know.

Joanna said...

Wow. I'm impressed. They do look yummy! I've never dyed with kool-aid, but it looks like lots of fun.

Thanks for your sock input on my blog :)

shanwen said...

Love the colours on 'bubbles' and 'sailaway'.. you could use them for socks i guess, they will look great

Patty said...

Nice Job! I'll be watching to see what you do with the Poppy!

knitfriendly said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
knitfriendly said...

Great job on all three skeins! I like poppy the best (but the other two are beautiful as well.) Fringe looks like an amazing place. Can you ask them to open a branch in Virginia? :)

Lone Knitter said...

I think the Sailaway colorway is my favorite too. It lovely lovely. I too bought WAY too much Kool-Aid when I dyed yarn, but I guess one never knows when a hankering for dying will come again.

ra said...

your "sailaway" is very similar to my "mermaids hair", which I forgot to put on my blog was the name of the skein I dyed.

I think you should try a swatch of "bubbles" it may work better knitted up. Love the red one tho'.

Dorothy said...

Love the dye jobs!! Bubbles is my favorite, followed by Sailaway.

Sanders said...

Love it!!! It turned out great!!!

Beth S. said...

Your first dye job? I'd say you're a natural!

Lora said...

I like the Sail away the best too!! Thanks for the comment on my blog :)

Rachel said...

I HAVE to start kool-aid dyeing soon. I'm so jealous of your great colors!

sarah / knot another hat said...

I'm surprised Lavender Sheep didn't try to get you to use One Shot dyes next time - that's her platform! :) It's because she has dyed some really beautiful stuff with it.

Way to go - my first attempt at Kool-Aid dying didn't come out nearly so vibrant. Maybe I'll be able to catch Lavender Sheep's next dye party...

Great yarn!

Maureen said...

Hey there! Your "Sailaway" skein looks a lot like my first attempt at kool aid! Very nice job! Funny what we end up doing when our husbands are away!

Catherine Kerth said...

great syeing job! love them all!