Yarn Dyeing with Pro Chemical Acid Washfast Dyes

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Um, So I ordered a lot of bare yarn.

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Then I ordered a lot of dye.

Called into work sick one Wednesday. Took the kids to their childcare.

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Ran to the store for Saran Wrap, foil, styrofoam cups and ignored the M&M's on the shelf, telling myself I had homemade brownies at home.

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Emptied my laundry bucket full of detergent so I could have a rinse bucket.

Anyway back to dyeing preparation:

Plan one: Call a friend to come over to help/for companionship as I embarked on my first yarn dyeing experiment. Both friends were too busy 1. cleaning 2. spending time in their home. Trust me, girlfriends, bail every time on the cleaning.

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Plan two: Call my sister who was driving to Dallas. 2 hours of chitchat and I was good and ready to go. Janne even remembered a large 6 foot section of cardboard I had at the house and when she reminded me, I went and by golly it was exactly where she said it would be.

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Could not find gloves...Run to store for gloves.

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Whiz was my buddy for the day of yarn dyeing. Isn't he a cutie?!

So, I'm ready:

I played played played. All day.

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Hung my yarn in the trees in my front yard and loved every moment. Sniffed the yarn, petted the yarn and admired the yarn.

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Rainbow dyeing was by far the most labor intensive.

1. Soak the yarn in solution of synthranpol, vinegar and water for 30 minutes.

2. Lay out sheets of plastic on top of absorbent surface (I used cardboard)

3. Boil water

4. Put one cup of boiling water in each styrofoam cup. (The directions say to use glass. I didn't want to ruin my glasses. At some point I will allot glass jars for each dye color and keep them stored in the glass jars.)

5. Measure out powder dye. (The directions say to use a stainless steel measuring spoon. I used a regular silverspoon from my silverware drawer that had gotten caught in the garbage disposal and had some dings in it.) To measure, I'm not exact. I eyeballed each amount and dropped willy nilly. If you are more exacting, then don't do what I do.

6. Stir mixture really well to dissolve the dye powder. (Clumps will end up as darker spots on your yarn and it bugs me, so I stir really well.)

7. Use some sort of application process: Sponges, paint brushes, pouring, syringes, squirt gun...You get the idea.

8. Dye dye dye and Have FUN FUN FUN!!!

9. Heat set the yarn and dye. The directions say to wrap in saran wrap and bake in the oven for an hour. I used solar heat setting. We had 80/90 degree weather, so I laid the skeins out to hang dry in the sun for 2 days.

10. Skein up yarn and wrap in a pretty bun.

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Don't do what I did and dye your driveway blue:

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Immersion Dyeing was the easiest:

1. Soak yarn the same as for rainbow dyeing. (in the synthranpol, vinegar and water for 30 minutes)

2. Fill up a stainless steel pan with 3.5 gallons of water.

3. Ad 165 mls of vinegar (12 tablespoons)

4. Toss in 1 tbsp salt.

5. Boil 1 cup of water in microwave.

6. Add dye to boiling water, stirring really really well. (see note above about chunks)

7. Add dye mixture to stainless steel pot.

8. Add soaked yarn, making sure the dye and yarn mix okay. (don't stir vigorously because you'll felt the wool).

9. Turn on stove to about medium (mine is on 5) and cook for an hour. You want the contents to get hot, but never boil.

10. Check on the mixture occassionally and after an hour most of the dye will have been taken up by the yarn. If the mixture is still pretty dye heavy, add 80 mls (6 tblsps) of vinegar and cook for another 10 minutes.

11. Take off heat and let contents cool.

12. Drain and hang to dry.

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Peace and BunBun, Spice, died in her sleep last night. Burial tonight at Grandpa's. Rest in Peace, baby girl.