Monday, April 24, 2006

My first post: Adventures in dyeing

After months of hemming and hawing, here I am, starting a blog. I am not really sure how a first post is supposed to go, so I'll just jump in, if that's ok with y'all.

In preparation for the Dye-O-Rama swap, I thought I would overdye some yarn that I had dyed before and didn't like. I did some new things today, kool-aid dyeing in the microve, and dyeing with Wilton's Icing Color. Ok, well, I admit it. Almost everything is still new. Last time I dyed yarn, I just did kool-aid on the stove. Thank goodness in the swap, there is a 'WTF am I doing?' group. Yep. That's just where I belong!

First order was a trip to Wal-Mart for supplies:

I do want to try out dyeing with egg dye, I may have tried it before but I can't remember. I scored 5 boxes of Paas Dye at 33 cents apiece! There are also 2 jars of Wilton Icing color, in Violet and Pink. I was hoping for Lavender, but with Wal-mart, you never know. Also, some plastic eggs to stash for next year. I love that they're super-big, so I can hide larger things in them. Maybe a hotwheels car or a hair toy or something like that. Under the pile is something not at all related, 3 pieces of felt in red, green, and brown. These are for Booga J's Pincushion Challenge, which officially starts May 1, even though she announced the theme today. I think it'll be really fun, so go take a look!

Here's the yarn I overdyed:










The pink was really too peach-ish, and, the purple? Well, first all, the photo is too light. Yes, I am too lazy to doctor it. (If anyone has advice on photography for blogging, please share!) The purple was done with some grapey kool-aid off brand, and didn't dye evenly. There are some nice purple parts, and, well, some gray parts too. There are also some pink specks here and there but that I don't mind.

I used fruit punch Flavor-Aid on the pink yarn, and violet Wilton's color on the purple.
Here are the tutorials that I used: dyeing with Kool-aid basic how-to and dyeing with Wilton's icing dye.

I dyed the kool-aid in the microwave (yes, I already said that, I know... sigh...) and I learned that I don't really need to use all of the dye- oops! It leaked! That's ok, I just pressed a spoon into the yarn after a few microwave sessions to see if the water was clear or not.

And here's my yarn!
The red, or rather red-pink is pretty accurate, but the purple too blue in the picture. I had some problems with splotchiness in the purple. Maybe I should have gently stirred the yarn more? Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, the purple yarn didn't take up all the dye. The water was still light blue when I took the yarn out. I guess I should have waited longer, but I am sooo impatient, and I wanted to get the yarn done before my girl-child got home from school. The red is a little bit splotchy, but not much. All in all, I like both yarns a lot better now than before.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks great! I'm afraid I may never get the hang of dyeing, but every time I see someone else manage it, I resolve to try again. And welcome to blogging! Glad to see you've finally got a virtual home. :)

5:17 PM  
Blogger thinggtwoo said...

Nice Job with the yarn!!

5:33 PM  
Blogger Diane H said...

Everyone should get acomment on their first blog entry!! Love the dye project - maybe I will make that my summer project.

6:10 PM  
Blogger Jennifer said...

Wow! You started your blog with something very challenging - and by the looks of it - with great success. Congratulations. I look forward to getting to know you more through your blog. Enjoy!

6:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very cool dyeing experience. I want to try that...and I have some Lamb's Pride I got for a steal at Granny's. Welcome to blogging!!

10:34 PM  

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