More Dying to Dye For!

Life sure interferes with blogging. Where does a week or 4 go? We are experiencing official mud season here in Maine...a month early! What is with 80 degrees last Saturday? Sure was nice though. Crocus & Daffodils are up too. Now I hope mother nature doesn't pull something evil in the next month and show up with a nor'easter. It has happened in April..but I will cry. I have started my tomato seeds.

If you have played with yummy kool aid dying, it is now time for meat & potatoes dying (I'm hungry, can you tell :o).

Again, you will make an acid bath as mentioned in the kool aid dying (Wool has to be soaked in an acid bath for the cuticles to open on the fibers so it can accept dyes of any kind. So, take your dishpan and add a solution of 1 gallon of hot tap water with 1 cup of white vinegar (that is your acid). Soak your yarn or wool fiber in this solution for at least 20 minutes.) I use washfast acid dyes sold by Prochem.com. They have some nice beginner dye kits there too. They use acetic acid crystal instead of vinegar but the shipping weight is expensive and vinegar is cheap and easy to get. 1 teaspoon of dye will dye about a pound to a 1 1/2 lbs of wool. They must be dissolved with boiling hot water.

Take 1 level teaspoon of dye powder (add less if you want a paler color) and put it in an empty yogurt cup add 1/2 cup of hot water and stir with a wood popsickle stick. Dump that into a larger plastic container (like a cool whip container). Add the rest of the water to the yougurt cup and stir to mix any undissolved crystals. Dump in larger container. 

Now method 1 (used mostly for solid colors): Transfer dye into  a stainless steel pot and add enough water to cover your wool (estimate) add the wool that has been soaking to the stainless pot and add more water if necessary to cover wool. Add 1 cup vinegar to bath.  Put heat on low and cover the pot. Let it slowly heat up (take about an hour) to a simmer. Gently stir wool occasionaly with a wood spoon. Water will become clear when all dye is absorbed. If there is still a tint of color in the water add a bit more vinegar 1/2 to 1 cup. When all dye is absorbed, turn off heat and let wool cool in pot.

1. Press the cool water out gently with your hands (do not wring) and roll in a bath towel to absorb the water. Or....

2. Press the cool water out gently as above but don't put in a towel. Put it into your washing machine and let it spin, so not let it aggitate or fill with water, just let it spin.

Rainbow Dying Method 2: After wool has soaked in sink, gently press some of the water out and stransfer to a long length of plastic wrap. Take one of the colors and slowly drizzle it on the yarn or wool, next take a different color and do the same. When you like what you see, fold the plastic wrap longthwise across the yarn/wool . Then take one end of the plastic and roll it loosley until it reaches the other end. Place it on a rack of some sort in a pot with about an inch of hot water in it (you do not want your roll of yarn in plastic to touch the water). Now, turn on the heat and put a lid on the pot, check to see if it is steaming. Once you see the steam, turn down the heat to low and let steam for 30 minutes. Let cool, rinse yarn/wool (as mentioned above) and Hang your yarn to dry or if it is unspun wool, spread it out on a towel to dry.



There are many ways to dye but this to me is the easiest and less costly way to get started. So play...play...play!
Next time, maybe lets dabble with natural dyes...hmmm?

Have to work on my taxes this week :o( but I'll try to check in a little sooner than I have.

Have a great week and feel free to email me with questions.
Arlyne~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

Just Dying To Dye!

 Vineyards

 Biloxi Blues

Cozy Hearth

Hello all! No, I didn't get lost on the way to the computer but I did have to trash my 15 year old vehicle and get another one. That takes homework and lookin' around I tell you. But I got a nice Nissan Titan V8 pickup truck. I though that qualified me as a red neck woman but DH said it would have to be a Ford, Chevy or GMC to qualify for that!

So, you've spun up a bunch of nice yarn and want to add some colors (the fun part). There are many ways to apply dyes to yarn so I'm going to break this up into dying segments so you're not overwhelmed. This time we will start off easy using kool aid to dye your yarn. Yes, Kool Aid...did you ever get some of that powder on your hands & try to wash it off? Makes a good, safe and yummy smelling dye to learn on. It is not as colorfast as traditional wool dyes but it is fun and starts giving you the idea of how to go about it.

Materials needed:

1. Unsweetened kool aid packets in your choice of colors (1 packet of kool aid for each 1/2 to 3/4 oz of yarn) 
2. White vinegar
3. stainless steel or glass pot (no aluminum)
4. dishpan
5. hot water

Wool has to be soaked in an acid bath for the cuticles to open on the fibers so it can accept dyes of any kind. So, take your dishpan and add a solution of 1 gallon of hot tap water with 1 cup of white vinegar (that is your acid). Soak your yarn or wool fiber in this solution for at least 20 minutes. While this is soaking you can now prepare your kool aid dye.

In your stainless steel or glass pot, add 2 cups of hot tap water for each packet of kool aid you will use and dissolve kool aid packets in the water. Transfer the wet wool into the kool aid pot of water. If the water, does not cover the wool, add more hot water. Now, you have a choice...you can heat your pot of kool aid with the wool in your oven. Put the pot in a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 150 degrees.  Heat for 20 to 30 minutes or until the water becomes clear as the color is absorbed by the wool. Your 2nd choice is to put the pot on the top of the stove on low heat and monitor with a thermometer so it doesn't get too hot and simmer until all the color is absorbed.  Rinse the yarn or wool in hot tap water with out wringing or you will felt you yarn /wool. Let cool then you have 2 more choices :o)
1. Press the cool water out gently with your hands (do not wring) and roll in a bath towel to absorb the water. Or....
2. Press the cool water out gently as above but don't put in a towel. Put it into your washing machine and let it spin, so not let it aggitate or fill with water, just let it spin.

Hang your yarn to dry or if it is unspun wool, spread it out on a towel to dry.
Want rainbow colors? After yarn has soaked in vinegar water, put it on a long length of plastic wrap. Mix separate kool aid colors in small containers with one cup of hot tap water, like empty yogurt containers. Take one of the colors and slowly drizzle it on the yarn or wool, next take a different color and do the same. When you like what you see, fold the plastic wrap longthwise across the yarn/wool . Then take one end of the plastic and roll it loosley until it reaches the other end. Place it on a rack of some sort in a pot with about an inch of hot water in it (you do not want your roll of yarn in plastic to touch the water). Now, turn on the heat and put a lid on the pot, check to see if it is steaming. Once you see the steam, turn down the heat to low and let steam for 30 minutes. Let cool, rinse yarn/wool and let dry as above.
Now go have some fun and get creative.
Next time we'll deal with traditional acid fast yarn dyes.
See you soon,
Arlyne ~  http://www.thewooleywhale.com/

Needles, Yarn Sizes & Gauges...Oh My!

Time does fly when your having fun?, loading the wood stove to keep warm at 0-15 degrees...but I did have the scale drop 4 lbs! As hard as it is, maybe keeping away from the chocolate is not a bad thing. Hey, I did buy a yoga mat, weights and a dvd to do yoga for weight loss. Looks like I'll have to buy another more preliminary dvd as in Yoga for the stiff & inflexible!

Well, in the past week you have all that lovely yarn spun, soaked and dried, ready to knit (or crochet).

But what size yarn is it? In order to know what needle size to use, you must know the yarn thickness. The easiest way to determine that is by measuring wraps per inch or WPI. I used a cheap wood ruler and cut out a one inch section in the middle of the ruler about 1/4" deep, say between numbers 4 & 5 . It doesn't matter which set of numbers you use just that it is an inch measurement. So now you have a ruler that looks like it has a 1" tooth missing. Now take your handspun yarn and carefully wind it in that inch space without overlapping but make sure the winds are next to each other with no space showing. Do not pull the yarn or wind it tight, just normal wrapping. When the 1" space is filled with yarn count the number of wraps it took to fill the space. If you can't cut a space in a ruler  you can carefully wrap yarn around the ruler for 1" but don't exceed the numbers or go past the lines.  Now that you know the WPI number here are the yarn sizes and needle ranges that go with the number!

WPI     YARN SIZE      STITCH GAUGE         NEEDLE SIZE          YARDS/LB.


 18+    lace weight           8+ sts / inch                  00-2                             2600+


 16       fingering/sock    6-8 sts / inch                1-3                          1900-2400


 14       sport weight        5-6 sts / inch                 4-6                          1200-1800


 12       worsted weight   4-5 sts / inch                 7-9                           900-1200


 10       bulky weight        3-4 sts / inch                 10-11                        600-800


  8-       very bulky             2-3 sts /inch                 13-15                        400-500


Well, I hope this clears the air a bit with yarn sizes. Handspun has thick & thin spots in it and with the bulkier size yarns I would choose the higher size needle unless you want a dense, tight knit. 

Truly the best way to know your gauge is to knit a 4" x 4" swatch on the needles you want to knit with and then count your stitches within an inch using a ruler.  You can always go up or down a size on your needles to adjust your gauge for a pattern.

How about we talk about some dying wool & yarn next time????

I'll be back soon!
Arlyne ~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com