Well, at least I’m going to get the stuff to do it. Uh huh. That’s right. I’m going to finally try this again. I did some Kool-Aid dying a few years ago and the mess completely turned me off. These lovelies were all sent to me by my fabulous Secret Pal Jen in the last round. She really spoiled the crap out of me. Carole keeps saying we should try it out and now that it’s nice enough outside to do it I guess I’ll finally cave. As long as we can do it outside I’ll do it. I mean, I only need to get some dye since I have everything else. I’m feeling inspired today so I guess I’ll hit the shop and get a few colors to throw on this yarn. It’s just calling out, “Puuuurples! Come and make me pretty!”
I guess this is a shout out to all my fellow dye friends. What’s the best advice you can give to a novice dyer? I think this book will help a lot but I like to hear solid advice from experienced from y’all. What other things are helpful in the process? Do tell dahlings. We really want to eventually make striped sock yarn. And no, we will not be doing anything of this to sell. Don’t get any ideas. We’re selfish and just want the stuff for us! Hey. At least I’m honest.
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When you learn share the knowledge.
I want to learn to dye too! I’m really on a kick of wanting to learn to spin and dye…I keep thinking of renting a house with an extra bedroom after graduation and turning it into a knitting haven with a dyeing station, spinning station and sweet knitting station, replete with an espresso machine. I know it’s a pipe dream, but I’m allowed one aren’t I?
Yes,please share the knowledge! I bought a hank of undyed sock weight at Stitches to try Kool Aid. But now you say the mess turned you off. =( But it’s cheering to know that you’re still willing to have another go at it… any advice for kool-aiding?
I’ve been anxious to try but haven’t yet. I’m waiting for the warm weather to arrive here, too. I can’t wait to hear about your experience, though.
wilton food colors may be a good start too.
try this link for kool aid dyeing:
http://www.knitty.com/issuefall02/FEATdyedwool.html
oh… and the twisted sisters sock workbook is a good resource.
When K and I started out, we used Procion MX dyes from Dharma Trading Company. Even if you don’t order from them, their website has a bunch of info on how to dye different fibers. You really don’t need very much dye to do some socks. If you want, I could send you a teaspoon of each of our colors. We mostly got CMY. This page was also really helpful: http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml
I’ve only used Wilton icing dyes for yarn. I’ve made some really pretty yarn with it!
I haven’t tried it yet but i’m anxious to see how yours turns out.
You are going to have so much fun! I dye (and sell) some self-striping yarn, and I have that book, too. But I have to say it’s not the simplest method for doing stripes if you want to do them more than once. A better method is to make a “warping board,” which is just a peg board you can zig zag the yarn back and forth and bck up to the top in a long loop, around and around. (I have two boards made of plywood. One makes a 60 foot loop. The other is 33, I think.) Then you can just sit there and wind the yarn, tie it off in 10 or 12 places (because a tangled 60-foot skein is no fun) and soak it. To dye it, I lay the skein out with a pile for each color I want to dye. I do this on pieces of saran wrap, leaving a foot or so of yarn between each pile (the less the colors mix, the more defined the stripes). This book is great on ideas for thickness of the stripes and all that. But I just dye at will, spray with vinegar, very carefully wrap the skein up and try to put it into some sort of neat bundle and steam away. I think in the book, she only puts one section of yarn on the table at a time. This seems like a lot of finagling to me. After rinsing and drying, you have to put the skein back on the warping board (or between two distant objects, like in the book) and reskein into something more manageable on a niddy-noddy or swift or ball winder.
I came to my method with trial and error and had a basic plan before i got the book, whichis maybe why I was a bit disappointed. However, it is a very informative book overall. And the fingerless mitten pattern is wonderful. There are some other cool patterns in there, too.
No matter how you slice it, self-striping yarn is a labor-intensive process both before and after dyeing. But it’s fun,a nd the results are never disappointing. You can get away with much greater color craziness than with simple handpainted yarn, where things turn to mud if you go too far across the color wheel.
Sorry this is long and probably boring and/or TMI. Email me if you want more. I’m no expert but I have done it many times! Have fun!!!!!
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[...] Scout got me thinking today with her latest post on dyeing sock yarn, that I really want to learn to dye and spin my own yarn. Yesterday I had to go into my professors office to finish up the assignment we have to do for the spinning exercise she had us do, and I spun some yarn on a top whorl spindle. It was very cool and I made some pretty good looking yarn, in my opinion. [...]