Today was a good day! I spent 4 hours dyeing wool & had the most fun! Thanks to my 'dye-vine inspiration' I now have a fun project to share with you all.
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I picked up this wool in a local charity shop for a bargain. It's a 95% wool 5% nylon blend, colours beige and blue. Although it was cheap, I didn't actually like the colours of the wool when I knit the swatches. So I thought, what the heck - dye the stuff!
I must admit, I wasn't apprehensive about the dyeing process, but more for the fact that the wool might felt while dyeingSo, felting fears aside, I pulled open the balls of wool and wound them into skeins. This kept them tidy and free from tangles during the dyeing process. Next, I soaked the two skeins in a basin of warm water and distilled white vinegar (1 litre of water to 1/4 pint of vinegar). After 1/2 an hour I gently queezed the excess water out and placed them in the a microwaveable dish.
For the dye I used a yellow colour called 'Melon'. I mixed 1/2 tsp of the paste with a small bottle of warm water. Attractive disposable gloves at the ready, I doused the dye all over the wool. The gloves came in very handy as I could poke and squish the wool to make sure that the dye had reached all of the wool. Finally, I covered the dish with cling film, pierced some holes in it and placed it in the microwave for 2 minutes on full power.
Here is a picture of the dyed wool - one green skein & one yellow skein - straight out of the microwave. To be honest, I hadn't really thought what the outcome would be so I was pleasently surprised with these earthy tones! So, something to remember in the future, if you are over-dyeing wool then take into consideration the starting colour of the wool: Blue wool will come out green when mixed with yellow, DUH!
And finally, here's the before and after pictures of each ball of wool, dyed and dried!
.I picked up this wool in a local charity shop for a bargain. It's a 95% wool 5% nylon blend, colours beige and blue. Although it was cheap, I didn't actually like the colours of the wool when I knit the swatches. So I thought, what the heck - dye the stuff! I must admit, I wasn't apprehensive about the dyeing process, but more for the fact that the wool might felt while dyeingSo, felting fears aside, I pulled open the balls of wool and wound them into skeins. This kept them tidy and free from tangles during the dyeing process. Next, I soaked the two skeins in a basin of warm water and distilled white vinegar (1 litre of water to 1/4 pint of vinegar). After 1/2 an hour I gently queezed the excess water out and placed them in the a microwaveable dish.For the dye I used a yellow colour called 'Melon'. I mixed 1/2 tsp of the paste with a small bottle of warm water. Attractive disposable gloves at the ready, I doused the dye all over the wool. The gloves came in very handy as I could poke and squish the wool to make sure that the dye had reached all of the wool. Finally, I covered the dish with cling film, pierced some holes in it and placed it in the microwave for 2 minutes on full power.Here is a picture of the dyed wool - one green skein & one yellow skein - straight out of the microwave. To be honest, I hadn't really thought what the outcome would be so I was pleasently surprised with these earthy tones! So, something to remember in the future, if you are over-dyeing wool then take into consideration the starting colour of the wool: Blue wool will come out green when mixed with yellow, DUH!
And finally, here's the before and after pictures of each ball of wool, dyed and dried!
I am including links to sites that I read, in preparation for this project. They might come in handy for you:-
Pieknits;Thebellwether;Moonriseknits
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