Adventures in Dyeing Part 2

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and after a few miserable weather days, Spring is back!

Today, I thought would be the perfect day for some dyeing; this time with Wilton Food Colouring gel and more of the Knit Picks Bare Wool (this time in fingerling weight). I also tossed in some Wool-Ease, just to see how it would take the dye with only 10% wool.

Unfortunately, I didn't document the process (photos and measurements) as much as I did with the turmeric dye a few weeks ago, but I've made good progress today and I at least have something to show for my efforts.

I first tried dyeing with Wilton a few summers ago when I was dyeing with Kool-Aid.  I had more yarn than drink crystals, so I dyed my last 2 hanks with some  Delphinium Wilton colouring and a little vinegar as the acid to set the colour.  The result was surprisingly good.  I had honestly not expected to see a decent result as I hadn't done any research on using food colouring to dye yet. I actually preferred the final product to the It's amazing how sometimes the offshoot of your main project can wield better results!


Fast forward 2 years, a bit more research, and a lot more ambition.

As intriguing the concept of using Kool-Aid as a dye is, it has it's limitations (and for me, I'll be honest, a wee bit of a gross out factor).  I've read a number of blog entries and articles that I've found via Pinterest (here's my Handspun and Dyed board) and I've poured through my copy of Gail Callahan's Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece many times to understand the fundamentals of dyeing yarn (so I guess I won't be using the leftover tie-dye kit dyes on wool after all).  I believe that I have a grasp of what I need to do, now the fun part will be to see if it fits with what I want to do!

And here is what I wanted to do: create 2 hanks of yarn with yellow blending into blue.  The yellow and sky blue are a lovely complement to one another.

After "wetting" the yarn  in a water/diluted vinegar bath, I laid the hanks out side by side on a plastic garbage bag.  I mixed about 1/2tsp of the yellow colouring gel into about 1 1/2C water and 1/2C vinegar and did the same with about 1/4tsp of blue.  I poured the yellow slowly over the top third of the hanks, gently squeezing as I went to saturate the fibres. I then did the same thing with the ble at the opposite end of the hanks.  I then gently squeezed the hanks from the outside in to blend the blue and yellow together in the centre as green.  I did the same with the left over dyes to my experimental sample of the Wool-Ease sportweight (as you can see below).

Following the formula of 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off repeated, I steamed the yarn in the microwave (yay for food safe colouring!)  And now I'm just waiting for the yarn to cool down to room temperature so that I don't shock it when I rinse it.  So far I'm pretty happy with the results.  The dye bath has run clear and the colours are gorgeous.

This project seemed like a cake walk compared to the turmeric/beet dye.  I can't wait to try another technique soon.  I'm thinking dip dyeing.  Stay tuned....

... And here is the result:  after a rinse and wash with Soak, it's so beautiful.