To dye for...

My knitting accomplice and I tackled dying today with some real bonafide dyes - no kool-aid for us thank you! (or so we thought...)

We have been planning this adventure for weeks now, today it rained, and rained - but we darted back and forth between the house and garage overhang. It all turned out very well despite it was our first run.

First we ran along a 24-foot fence line to wrap our "skein" - this must have looked ridiculous to the neighbors which made the experience all the more delicious. Then we laid out table length after table length of saran wrap where we spooned the dye onto our yarn in the desired scheme, wrapped it up and tucked the whole pile into a large zipper bag. Then off to the rummaged microwave...cook 2 minutes, rest for 1...4 times. Then up to the sink for the ridiculously tedious saran wrap removal process. In the process I managed to slice a couple pieces of yarn I hadn't meant to, oops! (I learned a few lessons today - I hurry and I shouldn't)! We used RIT and Dyelon, we determined that the pinks and reds bleed a lot! It took many rinses to get the pink to come clear but ultimately it was true to color.



My dyeing pal had a great concept of using lime, yellow, orange and some brown spots to create her inspired sunflower motif. I decided to try to re-create the STR "Lucy" colorway but replaced fushia for the blue. In retrospect, I wish I had gone for a paler pink but next time right? Once I unknot my mass of yarn (due to slightly frantic rinsing) I will post my little cake of hand-dyed.


The ultimate lesson here, we decided, is that kool-aid may be the way to go for us greenhorns. Our yarn is just for ourselves, for fun - and kool-aid means my 6-year-old could help me (God, help me) and I would not need a "dye only" microwave. But, I need to give credit where credit is due - the RIT made for gorgeous vibrant colors where the kool-aid seems to be less intense and concentrated. In the meantime, I think I'll stick with Yarntini to provide me the bright colorways. Or maybe I should look in my stash of goodies - I'm starting to think The Yarn Harlot's strategies for hiding yarn may need to be implemented. I will not buy yarn, I will not buy yarn...

Hey KOOL-AID!