Dyeing Yarn

Last week I decided to play around with some dye and dye some yarn. Here is the process I went through.

Gather all my materials: cooking pot, soaking pot, kitchen tongs, rubber gloves, mask, reusable zip tie, yarn (1 skein/100 g of superwash fingering weight yarn - BFL 75% and 25% nylon, citric acid, measuring spoons, paper towels, dye, paintbrushes. All of these are dedicated to yarn dyeing and none are used for food cooking.

First I put a zip tie around the yarn and shook it out. Then I soaked my yarn in a citric acid bath (1 T of citric acid to enough water to cover yarn). I soaked the yarn for 30 minutes.

I filled the cooking pot with enough water to barely cover my yarn and heated it up to a simmer. I also added 1 T citric acid to the water. Once it was simmering, I squeezed the excess water from the yarn and shook it out to let the yarn strands flow freely. Then I lowered the heat and added the yarn. I rearranged the yarn some of one side was pulled over to the top.

I added ¼ of a tsp of teal dye by sprinkling over the top of the yarn. I barely pushed it down in some places. After a minute, I pulled out the yarn and rearranged it on the zip tie before returning it to the hot water. I raised the heat a little to bring it back to simmer and then lowered the heat again. When it soaked up all the dye, I pulled up the yarn and moved it around the zip tie again. Then I lowered the yarn back into the water and rearranged it some of the yarn on the bottom side was on top.

I followed the same process with the sapphire blue dye but too much of the dye fell in one spot. Next time, I would use a paintbrush for the sprinkling.

Next, I followed the same process with hot Fuschia dye but I used a paintbrush for sprinkling.

Following that, I used sun yellow and sprinkled it with the paintbrush.

I decided I needed more pink so I used a paintbrush to sprinkle more pink over the yearn but I don't think it made much of a difference. 

  
Once I was sure all the dye was absorbed, I raised the temperature again and brought it to a simmer to help set the colors. Then I took it outside and let it cool down.

Once it was cool, I washed it in a cool water bath with some Soak detergent. I squeezed the water out and put it outside to dry.

I was happy with the results but I would do some things differently next time.

Things I would do differently:

• I would measure out the dye but I would dip my paintbrush into the measuring spoon and then sprinkle it on the yarn. That I way I would know how much of each dye I was using.
• I would start with the lighter color and speckle with the darker colors.

Having students learn something new is a good way for them to learn about following a procedure. Then have them reflect on what they could do differently next time. I think reflecting on my actions will help me make a different color yarn next time.

Original photos by Pat Hensley