Saturday, July 31, 2010

Fun with yarn

A couple of weeks ago, I got itching to dye some yarn again. I started with my second ball of Very Pink yarn. I wound it into a hank for dyeing and soaked it in my crockpot with some vinegar.


I wasn't kidding about the pink

I mixed a heaping 1/4 tsp of delphinium blue Wilton icing dye into a couple of cups of hot water.



Then poured it into the crock pot.



I mixed it around


Whoa, it looks pretty dark

And let it cook for an hour or so.


But it lightened up a bit

I had read that the delphinium blue was one of the Wilton colors that "breaks" when you used it to dye yarn, meaning it separates into it's component colors. You can see how some of the yarn looks a bit more pink. If you click on the picture below, you can see the pink line around the top.


Love the guy who invented crock pot liners!

After the yarn was dry and wound, it looked like this



I'm not sure how much of the pink in the yarn is from the dye breaking and how much is my inability to tie the cotton yarn loosely enough to allow the dye to get mixed evenly. It doesn't really matter, it looks pretty cool anyway. It has more of a matte look than the other yarn I overdyed, which I haven't decided if I really like yet. That's okay. I'm sure I can find someone who loves it when I'm ready to knit it up, if I don't fall in love with it by then.

In other fun with yarn, look what I finished!


Oooooo... swirly!

I wish I could take credit for the swirling colors, but it was pure luck. I think they look pretty cool, though.


They're really comfy, too.

Blue kept me company while I finished the socks


"Your socks match my eyes, Mama."

1 comment:

Sarah said...

That's really cool how it came out! Just like kettle-dyed yarn!