Dyeing: My First Yarn Dying Attempt!

And already, I have learned two three four five enormous lessons:

(1) With a 10' (stretched) diameter of yarn, MORE TIES will hold it in place much, much better.

(2) For the amount of yarn I am attempting to dye, I sorely underestimated the amount of dye I would need - using Kool-Aid and Wilton's together. Only adding the Kool-Aid since I quickly ran out of the Wilton's gel coloring. Lesson (2a) would probably be to purchase the powdered Wilton's food dye. As a result of this lesson, I did not get to attempt the ombre affect I was aiming for. As a result, there is NO recipe, just a bunch of crap added to keep color going ::insert laughing and rolling eyes smiley here::. [Just a side note now that I am on my 4th jumbo skein - I fully understand that my dyes exhausted so quickly because of the large amount of vinegar I used... when you read my method, if you're an experienced dyer you will either cringe in horror or laugh your ass off - lessons learned!]

(3) Personal dye baths must be filled to the top with liquid, otherwise the dye sits on the ends of the yarn in its bath. Ugh. I have gorgeous colors but about 8" of bare yarn still.

(4) When dealing with this amount of yarn, keeping the dye bath full of liquid is a must to keep the moisture, and thus the dye, wicking. Armed with this knowledge, I am very excited about my next attempt as I'm gonna bet that the dying goes much more quickly.

(5) When adding new colors, in different gradients or one of the two colors used to make a blended color, interesting things happen with this wicking method - one color will travel faster, or overdye everything and then be its own color once onto bare wool, or what have you. It is extraordinarily interesting!

So, here is what I have done:

Goal: To have 4 colors ombre, or blend, together where they meet outside of the dyebath. This is for my Grandma Driver, and I wanted something orange, yellow, and red.

Method:
300gms (660 yards) of Knitpicks Bare Superwash Worsted Merino yarn, joined end to end and made into a giant skein.

The skein was soaked in water with 1.5 cups of vinegar in the large crock pot for about 50 minutes. [I am on my 4th jumbo skein and now know that this heinously large amount of vinegar is why my dyes exhausted so quickly! Grrr.]

The excess moisture was squeezed out, but left the yarn damp.

The dyes were mixed in the mason jars with water from the vinegar/water dyebath (originally the dyes were added alone, then the extra and extra, oh and then the extra dye was added as the dye jar cleared FAST) and put in the water bath in the two crockpots, two jars in each pot, the pots turned on Low. The yarn was divided into four sections and each end put into its own color dye.





DyeBath 1:
4 Packs Kool Aid Lemonade
4 Packs Kool Aid Cherry
5 Packs Kool Aid Strawberry
3 Packs Cool Splashers Orange

DyeBath 2:
3/4 Tsp Wilton's Gel Buttercup Yellow
7 Packs Kool Aid Lemonade

DyeBath 3:
1/2 Tsp Wilton's Gel Christmas Red
3 Packs Kool Aid Berry Blue
2 Packs Kool Aid Cherry
8 Packs Kool Aid Grape

DyeBath 4:
1/4 Tsp Wilton's Gel Christmas Red
1/4 Tsp Wilton's Gel Buttercup Yellow
2 Packs Kool Aid Orange
5 Packs Kool Aid Pink Lemonade
3 Packs Cool Splashers Orange

TOLD YOU IT WAS CRAZY!

It should have been a gradual gradation/ombre from "dark to light to medium to light" but I ended up having to use different colors. Oops. See Lesson (2) as to why this happened. This is where I learned that I needed lots of dye and lots of water in each dyebath [and now know NOT to use vinegar until setting the dye at the end when trying to achieve a wicked gradient]. At this point I'm refilling dyebaths and contemplating adding another round of color to travel up the soaked yarn, but am anticipating the final result so much that I wish I were done already!

This is the final result. It truly does look more like hand painted yarn, but I think with practice I can get a fine ombre/gradient look, especially if I stick to 1-3 colors, with 2 mason jars per color. Still working on that aspect anyway. Very pretty huh! Lots of vinegar makes for VERY vibrant colors, tee hee. This is to make a scarf and hat for my Grandma D. Will post that soon!

Dyeing: And I've begun!

...but only after I read a LOT more and realized I needed things to get warm to set dyes! Uhm, yeah. So fantastic husband of mine found me two large crockpots, then we went and bought a case of mason jars. And I'm now working on my fourth jumbo skein.

Much has gone awry, many things I did incorrectly, but I'm getting there! The best part is none of the dye jobs warranted discarding. They will all be knitted up for their intended recipient. The notebook I'm keeping has pages on things NOT to do, and observations that at times seemed like DUH, and other times had me scratching my head. But I am loving every moment and I know before long I'll be able to do recipes and dyes consistently, with allowable variation, each and every time. The best part is that I've realized I can double the amount I've been dying at once.

Dyeing: Commencing this week!

Went to the thrift store with my spouse who helped toddler-wrangle while I purchased non-metal tools to do my yarn and eventually fabric dyeing. Remember the mondo skeins of yarn? MMMhhhmmmmm, very, very, very soon, they will look different.

The mad scientist in me is very excited as I've read many a blog and tutorial on dyeing, but only one on gradient dyeing and what I am attempting has not been done yet so far as I can see. That just makes it all the more exciting!

The problem with getting amazing pricing...

...Is not the co-ops, the sales, or the de-stashing of other artists themselves that is the problem, it's the possibilities that are presented to me in all these fabulous new things, when I have fabulous things to use already. What can I say? I adore, adore, adore making things using unusual print and color combinations. And I find that the newer items I purchase often match a fabric from my stash. Yarn I buy for inspiration, knitting a specific pattern, or to dye myself. These items do not include the dyes I've purchased for the Dharma Trading Co. clothing blanks and yarn I will be dying shortly. It's astonishing. It is nice, though, that through amazing cooperative purchases, I am able to spend the same amount of money, and generally get twice as much in materials.

Amy Butler "Lotus" fabric prints - 8 yards ordered

Kaffe Fasset fabric prints - 10 yards ordered

Free Spirit Jumprope fabric prints - 4 yards ordered

Alexander Henry fabric prints - 10 yards ordered

Wooly Wonders by Nada - 8oz ordered in Wild Strawberry in Blackberry Ridge Merino

Organic Cotton yarn by Pakucho in natural and dark chocolate ordered

Metal Swift by Royal in Japan ordered

Belladonna Designs
3 skeins of fingering weight yarn in superwash merino/nylon in Caribbean ordered

1 skein of of fingering superwash nylon merino in spring rainbow


Annnnddd 3 skeins of worsted superwash in black gradient - but with pink instead of blue. The photo next to it is how the gradient knits up. Mich, the woman who is Belladonna Designs, is genius.



These colors and patterns and materials are gorgeous! Just wait to see what comes of them... not to mention how I become inspired to make my own things!

Sewing: Custom curtains - FINISHED!

And boy oh boy, what a pain in the ass. Not all of it. Just parts. And for good reason. The "big" curtains I am extraordinarily pleased with. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

First off, the pain in the ass. These are vintage pieces of material that I was just resizing for their new home. However, the fabric content included fiberglass. How does one know? Ahh - the itchy hands that turn red and start to swell and hurt. I didn't do a perfect job, but I couldn't handle them much longer either. She completely understood. The print is lovely and the green, the apple green color, completely plays off the last curtains shown here.

Next up are the curtains for her son - which are lined, and which also have two edges with "gentle" curves (yes, again, I'm rolling my eyes here). The fabric is a wonderful Michael Miller (if I recall correctly) navy with star print. It's lined with muslin. I finished sewing these after finishing the fiberglass icks and when I rush, I'm not perfect. It makes me sad, but thankfully they are hung to gather and the curves will be lost. I did a lovely star/diamond decorative stitch along the edge where the curtains fold over to insert the rod. Tee hee, looks cute up close!

And finally, the piece de resistance, which, for the record, I am in love with! The two fabrics comprising these curtains are JoAnn's line of Christopher Lowell in apple green - a polyester that does an amazing imitation of shantung, and a sheer with, get this, velvet chenille dots. They need to be gently steamed, but this is what one can do with 2.5 yards of each:

Sewing: Did the count!

And I am actually at 51 pieces cut, with 12 left on the pile. I figure if I'm already this far along, might as well go the distance!! Tonight I should be done as 5 pieces are for my daughter, 2 are the same dress, different material, 4 are miscellaneous, and the last 1 is a set of curtains for a friend - which of course, will be the very first thing I sew. I'm trading for childcare. Fabulous trade, that. Just have to have them done by Friday, Saturday at the latest.

Sewing: Still cutting...

In regards to my Sewing With a Purpose project, I am still getting these things cut. And I did a recount... Since I counted a few patterns as doubled where I'd only cut singly, I think I'm off by about a dozen, meaning I had some 20-odd more pieces to cut. I'm afraid to do a real count... my hash marks evidently aren't correct, can't fathom why at 2 in the morning. I'm afraid to do a real count. But I have the last pile on the cutting table, and well, it's all I'm going to do. I have gotten 8 pieces (6 bags and 2 dresses for my daughter) cut already. So it's time to get moving. I think I can have this crap done tonight.

On a bitchy side note, some patterns are simply atrocious to cut. The better the fit, the more to cut. Also, the more tired I get, the more I second-guess some of my print and fabric choices ::rolling eyes here:: I chalk it up to the fatigue. It is cute, but I'm getting beyond sick of cutting. And I'm almost out of pins - all 850 of them.