Hand Dyed Yarn
One of the last times I visited my Mom and Dad in Oregon, my mom gave me some yarn suitable for dyeing at home. She had purchased a kit from Knit Picks and the kit included 100 grams of fingering weight yarn, 100 grams of DK weight yarn, and 100 grams of worsted weight yarn. My mom has had a variety of knitting machines over the years; we knit the fingering and DK weight yarn into sock blanks using one of her knitting machines during my visit. When we knit up the fingering weight yarn, the yarn was doubled up (knit two strands at one time). When we knit up the DK weight yarn, we just used a single strand of yarn.
On Easter Sunday I watched a number of videos on YouTube related to dyeing yarn at home with Kool Aid drink mix, Easter egg dye, and food coloring. After watching a number of videos, I finally rolled up my sleeves and dyed my fingering weight sock blank.
I soaked my sock blank in about 4 cups of water and 6 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. The sock blank really was soaking up a lot of water so I added in more water and another splash of vinegar.
I protected the counter with some old bath towels and then I spread out some Glad Press n' Seal plastic wrap. Regular plastic wrap also works but I just used what I had on hand. I wrung most of the vinegar water out of the yarn and spread the blank over the plastic wrap. I reserved the vinegar water and continued to use it as I decorated the sock blank.
I sprinkled the Kool Aid directly out of the packet onto the sock blank in stripes. I crushed up some of the Easter dye pellets and sprinkled them on the blank too. I was having a hard time breaking up the pellets so I ended up setting some of the pellets directly on the wet blank. I used a spoon and dribbled some of the vinegar water directly onto the pellets to encourage them to dissolve and melt into the blank. I moved the pellet around the sock blank to add more color here and there. Finally, I took a foam paint brush and dipped it into the reserved vinegar water and used the brush to both moisten the Kool Aid and move/spread the dye around.
I wrapped the wet sock blank up in the plastic wrap, folding in the sides and the ends and then I rolled both ends toward the center. I put it on a dinner plate and then heat it in the microwave. Specifically, I heated it on HIGH power for 2 minutes, waited a few minutes, and then heated it for 2 more minutes, and then it sit while we went for a walk. For good measure, I heated it for 2 more minutes when we got home. I was not scientific about this at all.
After the yarn cooled, I washed and rinsed the yarn a few times until the water ran clear. The videos recommended using tepid water with liquid dish soap for the washing.
After the yarn dried, I could not wait to start knitting a pair of socks from my home-dyed sock blank. Above I mentioned that the fingering weight sock blank was knit with the yarn held double. As I am unraveling the sock blank and knitting this pair of socks, the yarn is producing two identical socks. Pretty cool, huh?
As you can see, Sandy has been helping me immensely with this pair of socks. She's such a good helper.
I am using my new Karbonz needles (2.50 mm) size and the pattern is "Jeck" (a free pattern on Ravelry). I am adding a Strong Heel in place of the heel recommended in the pattern. I cast on 60 stitches for my socks.
If you go to YouTube to watch some videos related to dyeing yarn at home, I can highly recommend videos by ChemKnits. I just kept searching for relevant videos by adding in phrases such as "how to dye yarn with Easter egg dye" and "how to dye a sock blank with Kool Aid". This was a lot of fun! I sure learned a lot and am happy with the results I got. I am sure I will do this again. I don't intend for what I wrote above to be a tutorial in any way. Like I said, check out a variety of videos out there. But please feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section if you want more information about my experiences.
