Fresh from the Dyepot: Finished yarn

[HeatherAthebyne]

What have youdyed recently?

I turned some white Knit Picks Stroll sock yarn into a shaded green skein. I was aiming for malachite but I think the Lanaset green is a little too blue. Maybe verdigris?

[Char]

That is beautiful!!

[Bettymo]

Came out great!

[rollinge]

I love it!!

[HeatherAthebyne]

I've had the Fylingdales cardigan from Lisa Lloyd's A Fine Fleece in my queue for a while. I want to make a cardigan for my husband to make up for the saggy floppy superwishywashy mess that is the first one I made him. (He's strictly forbidden to wear that one off of our property.)



I dyed eight skeins of W2D4's non-superwash worsted merino improved base in a 1.5% mix of 2:1 Blue 2R:Navy R. (When I write it like that, it sounds way harder than "I took my 1% stock solutions of two blues and threw 150 ml of them on a 100g skein".) The photo shows the first two skeins and the lower ribbing section.

I changed up my approach to tonal variegated dyeing this time around. Instead of a pot of dye over which I must fuss the whole time, I did individual low-water baths in gallon sized plastic ziploc bags. I put 300ml of liquid (dye + citric acid solution) into one bag with one damp skein. I squished it around and mixed it up to make sure that dye got into everything, and then steamed the bags four at a time. I'm super happy with both the result and how easy the steaming process is! With a probe thermometer I can keep an eye on the temperature from across the room and then start a timer once the water starts boiling. Once done, all I do is turn off the stove and wait a while for things to cool. The plastic bags can be washed and reused for more yarn, and there's very little excess dyebath to dispose of. As you can see, the result is gorgeous

Bonus: the pilot skeins of this method, a couple of Knit Picks Woodland Tweed skeins in 1% Bordeaux B.

[Bettymo]

Wow beautiful variegation.

[thasista]

My first dying attempt. This is knit picks merino twist with jacquard gunmetal. I love it!

[Carlota]

Wow, thasista, you went all out and scored in the dyeing - that looks fantastic! What is next?

[Bettymo]

Gorgeous!!!

[thasista]

Carlota knitpicks had this yarn on sale for 50% off and then I got a 20% off coupon so I bought 50 Hanks. Next color will be a gold type color also jacquard acid dye . But I want to get started on a sweater for my daughter with this gun metal I am so happy with the way it turned out and it was a lot of fun

[Carlota]

That's good to know - you were brave to start out with a sweater's quantity and you nailed it!

[Bettymo]

Wasn't sure which topic to post this under. Just wanted to share what I did yesterday. It was a Cochineal Dye Workshop with Porfirio Gutierrez. This was through one of the Guilds I belong to. The Palomar Handweavers and Spinners Guild at the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum.
Porfirio gave us handwoven scarves to dye. They were premordanted in Alum. First we dyed them in Mexican Tarragon -Tagetes Lucia. Then we removed them from that dye bath and put them into a Cochineal dye bath. That is the traditional method to get the deepest red along with adding lemon juice to the Cochineal bath after about 20 minutes. The scarves stayed in each bath approx an hour. My scarf was originally a creamy white wool with a light grey wool. These show going into the Tagetes Lucia bath, the result, and all the scarves after the Cochineal. It was a great day.

[Carlota]

Ooooh my what fun! That is gorgeous! Do you think you will try that again at home? I will have to try to find some Mexican Tarragon here. I also like the twill scarf.

[Bettymo]

Carlota It was fun. I might try it at home but I don't have any of the dye stuff right now. The yellow/mustard color was beautiful too.

[Fiber Passion]

I did a couple of days using natural dyes with logwood (purples) , madder (coral), saxon (blues) and fresh goldenrod (yellow and greens) with some over dying. Some light dipping to get a gradients.

[FreedomLover]

Stunning!

[Bettymo]

They all came out lovely!