My Process of Post-Dyed Yarn (part 1)

The idea came to me too late to really photograph the entire process, from pre-dyeing to post-dyeing, but here’s what happened:

I wanted to dye this last bit of yarn I had. It’s a 100gm skein of yarn, 450+ yds, of fingering/sock weight yarn. A part of me wanted to wait until I had some Jacquard Acid Dyes, but another part of me was eager to Get It Done.

In the vein of the Get It Done attitude, I mixed up the dye-liquor. I wasn’t really considering the end result so much, which shows in the final skein. I mixed one bottle of neon-pink to one-cup vinegar and 2 cups hot-water (I use the tea kettle for this). I then mixed one bottle of neon-purple to the same proportions as the pink. We have these quart-sized soup containers from Chinese-takeout that work great. It’s probably not the best that it’s plastic, but I knew it wasn’t a long-term solution. Anyway, I can use a sharpie to write the mixture and color on the top of the container in case I do want to use it over in the future.

Moving on–I left the liquor to sit, then drove to the store, picked up some sponge brushes, and made my way back home. There, I soaked the yarn in a soapy, hot-water bath for about an hour. (Usually it’s only a 30-minute soak, but I may have forgot about the yarn in my Olympics haze. Shh.) Once I remembered the yarn again, I gently squeezed the water from the yarn, leaving it damp, but not soaking.

Additional set-up consisted of my laying out two aluminum pans–you know the type, the family-sized lasagna pans–side by side. I draped the yarn so that it was even on both sides, then proceeded to sponge the pink dye-liquor to the yarn in the right pan. I worked up to about the 2-3″ worth of yarn that was draped over the middle where the pans met. I then switched sponge brushes and sponged the purple dye-liquor into the yarn in the left pan. The middle section I decided to sponge lightly across in both colors to blend where the sections met.

I’m Miss High-Tech, I tell you what.

There was some unevenness, even after flipping the yarn over to hit the backside. Because I had some dye-liquor left, I decided to pour the rest of the dye onto the yarn in each of the separate pans. I then smooshed and propped the pans up so that the remaining dye-liquor was hitting all of the yarn.

I left that to sit for a while. A “while” was about 10 minutes, because I sometimes have no patience, and the Ladies Gymnastics was about to come on.

Gently squeezing out the yarn once more, I set it aside and dumped out the nearly-clear dye-liquor left over. Now it was time to wrap it up–literally.

After making room on the countertop, I laid out the plastic wrap on the counter and draped the yarn over the plastic, down the center. I wrapped the yarn, lengthwise, then rolled it up like a little wormy burrito. From this point on, it was no longer up to me how this yarn would turn out!

I stuck that wormy burrito in the microwave and set it for 1 minute on High. I let it rest for 2 minutes, then set it for another minute. I let it rest, then popped it back on for 30 seconds.

The moment I pulled it out of the microwave, I knew I wanted to take photographs. Did I grab the girlfriend’s higher-end digital camera that she takes all of these wonderful shots with? Of course not. I took the initial photos with the lower-end camera that I use to shoot my video tutorials.

Still, it’s worth showing…

Part 1 - Wormy Burrito

Part 2 - Wormy Burrito unwrapping

Part 3 - Yarn is free and in a bowl

Part 4 - Yarn is soaking in hot water and Woolite

And this is where I hung the yarn to dry and decided to switch cameras, but you’ll have to wait for part 2!