Category: Dyeing

The world would be a much happier place if everyone loved yarn as much as Miss Betsy, who seemed to think that the yarn I brought to the Farmer's Market for her Mama this weekend was better than a baby doll and worth hugging and squealing about while we sat and visited.  She had so much joy on her face the entire time – truly, I can't remember ever seeing someone express more delight over a simple item.  If the whole world was like Betsy, knitters would rule and everything would be done far more efficiently and beautifully!

A knitting friend came to me recently with two different types of yarn.  She was no longer in love with the colorways she had purchased some time back.  The question was, could her yarn be overdyed.  While the answer hinges on a lot of variables, the short answer is, yes and we did it!

I thought I would share a bit of the process with you, in case you find yourself in a similar situation.  The yarn pictured above is Handmaiden's Seasilk (I had to try hard not to judge anyone who would want to overdye such gorgeous yarn!)

This is Blue Sky Alpaca's Alpaca/Silk blend.  I started by gently untying the skeins to cut a few test strips of each yarn.

We selected the gray overdye for the Seasilk and the Blue for the Alpaca/Silk. 

Into the dyebaths they went.  First, the hot pink Silk/Alpaca.

And then, the Seasilk.

Obviously, this process is not for the faint of heart.  But at the end of the day, the search for new colors was a success, and due to careful soaking and washing to open the fibers and strip off any finishing products that might have prevented even dye uptake, the results were incredibly lovely.  The hot pink became an incredible, deep, rich blue and the Sea Silk a gray with undertones of lilac and lavender.

In each case, the yarn dyed up true to the sampling we did.  Although you have to weigh your dye to give this type of replicated result rather than measuring, which is easier, in the long run, it is worth weighing your dye and recording recipes by weight not measurement, to attain the predictability.  And in order to overcome some rather strong colors, I mixed a very strong dye bath, using almost twice as much dye by weight as I typically do.

As a comparison, the photo below shows the blue overdye lined up with some undyed skeins that went into the same dye bath.  You can see the influence of the pink on the resulting blue.

I like the colors so much that I've order some bulky Blue Sky Alpaca in the same bright pink to see if I can overdye it into the beautiful deep blue color for another Outlander Cowl.  (Oh Claire, your knitted items are so beautiful.)  (<= If you don't know what this refers to, you really should consider watching Outlander, just for the beautiful knitted costumes from the Scottish Highlands.)

Life is too short to knit with bad yarn, and the same is true of color.  If you don't like it, overdye it.

This post is just eye candy, pure and simple.

I've been doing some dyeing, and thought you all might like to see it.  For the most part, I've been doing two- skein sets so I can do a hat and mittens for my children who seem to shamelessly lose their hats and mittens every year who adore and cherish everything I knit for them.

I've been wanting color, like this Blue Faced Leicester, perhaps because our later summer garden is a riot of color and it's infectious.

Although most of it is for the kids, this more muted bit is for me.  It's dk weight cashmere that I've dyed up — some of it is reskeined and some not but it's all the same, and I intend to make something wonderful with it, perhaps a long scarf to wrap around my neck this winter, or a shawl.  This is the time of year when weekend soccer games give me lots of extra knitting time, so I'm glad to have all of this ready to be knit up!

Following up on yesterday's photo of the Elliebelly Crayon colorway dyed up three different ways, I've got some photos to give you an idea of how different approaches to dyeing give you nuanced results in your finished project.

(1) Handpainted – As you can see in the skein, this method gives you crisp color definition.  The colors are pure and saturated, without any toning because there is no mixing of the dye on the skein.

 

 

(2) Kettle Dyed – This approach gives you organic color transitions that blend from color to color as well as the ability to create "lowlights" in the yarn for projects where you want to tone the impact of the colors.

(3) Paintbrush – This method, which is the most labor intensive, randomizes color placement to prevent pooling and uses blending to create soft colors and a variety of hue and saturation.  Ashley's Clapotis is a great example of this yarn knit up.

The differences are subtle, but understanding different yarns and how they are dyed can help insure you get the best yarn for your project.  Ultimately, I like all of them.