DYING SELF-STRIPE YARN!

by Grannie Linda

A SAWHORSE WITH A RIDGE!

First, I "borrowed" my husband's two new saw horses. He is building a garage, so they are handy! I also used his 100 ft. measuring tape and placed the horses so that it was 40 feet around the two horses. I had put some handspun lamb's wool yarn onto my ball winder so that I could use them as center-pull balls. I tied one end to one saw horse. I then walked around (and around and around) the saw horses winding the yarn below the handy "ridge" on the saw horse. I tied the skeins in eight places with  figure "8" ties.
{Just F.Y.I. - be sure to look up once in awhile as you walk around and around.  I was feeling a bit queasy because I was concentrating and not stopping!}

A 40-FOOT CIRCUMFERENCE AROUND THE SAW HORSES!

I dyed one-half of the skein blue using RIT royal blue. The middle one-fourth I left white and the final one-fourth I died red using WILTON food coloring. I poured vinegar in both pots (about 1/2 - 3/4 c. depending on the size of the pot...) and simmered the yarn about 1/2 hour. The red was all taken up and the water was left clear, but the RIT, because it is made to dye different fibers, had some left-over color.

I just rinsed the skein well in warm water (the same temperature that the dye water was after cooling a bit), and put the skein in the washing machine to spin out the excess water!.

Here is what the skein looked like after drying a bit! neato!

I put the skein BACK on the saw horses - making sure that I tied one end of the skein onto a horse (!) and then re-wound it onto my regular niddy-noddy.

{Just F.Y.I. -- I should have swept the floor better first! There was a bit of sawdust around and if I dropped the yarn, I had to pick out some bits.....I think I picked enough things out of the lamb's wool when I SPUN it!}

 

This is the skein re-wound on my niddy-noddy. Is this cool, or what!?!?!?

Here are the finished socks and gloves!!!

The SECOND skein I did was dark blue, tealish green, and purple. The green was something I had left from another project and I could not tell you WHAT was in it...I don't mind photo documentation, but I don't like to write things down.....

The purple is RIT purple, and the blue is the same blue that I used for the first skein (RIT royal blue) except that I wanted it darker, so I added two envelopes of blue KOOL-AID. This time I died each color at a separate time. 1/2 the skein is the green, and the far 1/4 is blue with the center 1/4 being the purple.
The yarn is a 'dye-your-own' fingering yarn from KnitPicks.

{Another F.Y.I. - I am, predictably, a "pastels" person, and my husband KNOWS that! I have died so many pink, baby blue, and lavender yarns! He told me to do something completely different this time -- different for ME -- so this is the result! I should branch out more often!}
NOTE: the glass between the colors is holding the yarn up so that water is not "wicked", or siphoned out of the pot! In my first attempt the entire stove was covered with water before I realized what was going on and how to solve it!

Here is the  purple being dyed. Again, I put a glass under the yarn to hold it up! I simmered these colors for about 1/2 an hour as I did with the first skein.

{F.Y.I.- I was doing this rather late in the day. It wasn't something I had planned on doing that day, it just "worked out". My family was driven out to the deck, as they said the house smelled like KOOL-AID pickles....so what's wrong with that???}

Now, this picture will need a bit of explanation...and yes, the family is still out on the deck.....
I wanted to put some black "dots" in the yarn, so that when I knitted it there would be a bit of "FairIsle" patterning....
I spread a piece of plastic wrap on the counter and taped it down. Then I laid out the green portion of the yarn. I folded it in half lengthwise, as my kitchen is not very big! I made a solution of strong, black dye using vinegar water and powdered RIT black dye. I tried a dropper, but it took too long to get the dye into the yarn, so I spooned it in rows and used the back of the spoon to "mash" the color in. I didn't want it to be very "wet", so it took some mashing. I carefully turned it over to hit any spots where the dye didn't go completely through.
I left some of the green plain (you can't really see it in the picture, it would be off to the left and at the place where the green joins the purple) so that there would be a bit of solid green before any black coloring started. You can see it later in the finished skein photo.

 

I wanted to set the black into the yarn using the microwave, but I didn't want to get any black on the other two colors, so I put them into a freezer "zipclose" bag, put the green into a "for dying only" microwave safe dish, then put the other colors (in the bag) on top before putting the lid on.

I put the dish in the nuker and put it on HIGH for 2 1/2 minutes, then let it rest for 2 1/2 minutes, then HIGH again for 2 1/2 minutes. THEN COOOOOLLLLLL.  I rinsed the skein carefully in warm water and spun the water out in the washing machine.

Here is what the skein looked like before I re-skeined it.
You can see where I left some of the green plain.

Here is the yarn after it was put back on the saw horses and re-skeined on my regular niddy-noddy!

Now the fun has begun as I am making a pair of socks with skein #2 and they are coming out sooo coool! If you need info on making socks with two circulars, or making socks in general, go to the Grannie Linda section of this site, or click on the hi-lighted words above!

FINISHED!

Have fun, and by all means put a plate of pickles and a pitcher of Kool-Aid out on the deck for the family so that they don't feel left out!