Editing Your Yarn

Today I'd like to provide a little tutorial for any of you who find yourself with a lovely skein of hand-dyed yarn that happens to have some white blotches you would prefer it not to have...




In the example above it appears the skein was tied tightly during the dye process, preventing the dye from penetrating one area. Having one or two bright white stitches every so often in an otherwise plum shawl is not to my taste. However, I certainly didn't want to overdye the whole thing and lose the lovely plum color. I figured I had two options: mix dye myself and hand-paint it onto the white, or see if I could "recycle" any excess dye already in the yarn. The latter seemed preferable given my color mixing ability, so here is what I did.

1. Soaked the skeins for 24 hours in coldish/room temperature water with just a splash of soap. I did this because silk is notoriously hard to get thoroughly wet, and any dry spots will not release or take up dye. I also pushed the skeins down carefully (don't make tangles!) several times to release trapped air bubbles.

2. Placed the skeins in my (dyeing only) crock-pot with as much water as possible.

3. Turned the heat to "high." With my crock-pot this will eventually bring the yarn to just under boiling. Crock-pots vary, so be careful.

4. This particular yarn had very little excess dye. The dye did not begin to release until the water had reached very warm temperatures.

5. I moved the yarn around to distribute the dye evenly, then added 1/4 cup of vinegar. I admit that I didn't know what type of dye had originally been used, so this was a bit of a shot in the dark. To set, acid dyes require heat and acid (vinegar), so I wanted to provide those elements to encourage the released dye to take up into the white parts of the yarn.

6. Some of the dye took up immediately. I could see the water growing clearer. Maximum uptake can be achieved by letting the yarn cool completely in the water, so I left it to cool overnight.

Not surprisingly, it was the red dye that was most prominent in the excess that was released (I don't know why, but red dye is known to be hard to fix). In my final product the white areas were turned a lighter, pinker shade of purple. Given the variation in the yarn, this should blend in fine.

A disclaimer here at the end: I'm not a dye expert, this probably won't work with anything not dyed with acid dyes, and submerging a whole skein of yarn and encouraging it to release dye could result in some DRASTIC color changes, especially if the yarn was hand-painted to start with (is this a run on yet?) However, if you've got nothing to lose, and you want to get rid of some white spots, this might work for you!

Try, Try Again

Have been trying to rescue some nice yarn that was not quite the right color...



New color on left, old color on right. This is with acid dye.



The purple is quite dark, but nicer in life than in the photo. I suppose a scale is in order if more exact dye results are desired... perhaps for my birthday?

I have also cast on for a new fall shawl (not the one I was making batts for - that is a story for another day). The fiber is hand-dyed, so I notice there is going to be some (big?) differences as I go along... but I hope it all looks as lovely as this part...

Batt Hacking

No, not that kind silly, this is a fiber blog.



One of my favorite etsy sellers often includes a bit of gift fiber with orders. The little skein in the photo above is the freebie that came with my last shipment. I liked it so much that I was going to order some similar fiber that she had listed, but I was too slow. Man, those batts sell like hotcakes.

So I started to wonder how hard it would be to hack this batt. I had some fawn colored alpaca on hand (far right), and I over-dyed some with a mix of red and black dye (middle). For fun I decided to take some freshly washed white alpaca (left) and blend that in too. Along the way I noticed that I needed some dark brown and some longer, rougher fibers to hold things together. A pinch of this and a pinch of that from the stash and I was rolling...



I'm sure the proportions are different and there isn't going to be any sparkle (haven't laid hands on any angelina yet), but these should be fun. I'm saving them for spinning night, so I'll have to report back later on the outcome :) Meanwhile I will try to make a little progress on this



for my shawl. The astute among you may notice that this is an Ashford bobbin. I still have the Ashford on loan, so I'm going to try to finish the rest of this fiber on it (3.5 oz) for the sake of consistency. I'm still adjusting to the different ratios on the Lendrum. In fact, I'm resting my wrist today because I tried to go up a ratio and overstressed my hand trying to pinch off the massive (over) twist. No worries though. These things take time, and now I have a better idea of how to keep out of trouble in the future.

Poison Apple Batts

Handdyed and natural BFL + drumcarder =

Ut-oh

I should have know what a slippery slope this would be. First I had to have a knitting blog, and then I had to learn to spin, and now here I am with a drum carder in my garage and a crock-pot devoted to fiber dyeing. Crazy things happen when one gives up television.*

My first fiber from the dye-pot. Right now I'm experimenting with acid dyes. I've just been working with an arm's length of BLF at a time since I have little idea what I'm doing. This one was an attempt to get some of the colors of the evening sky. I used some straight blue, and some blue and red mixed to what looked like a nice lilac. The red seems to have become much more prominent after the heat setting process.

Same roving: From the dye-pot and predrafted.

I may try something like this again, but use less dye to get a more pastel effect. Right now I don't have a way to measure the dye easily, so my products are non-repeatable. It did occur to me that I could probably get some insulin syringes and use those to get a better idea of how much dye I am squirting around. Ah, good times.


*This is a book that probes how television affects us emotionally and relationally. Fair warning though, some of the explicit content means I personally won't be rereading it. The television issue is an interesting one for me. I'm not against TV, but I find that personally the temptation for escapism (without any of the redeeming qualities of say, escaping by reading Middlemarch) is too great.