Enboldened by my first dyeing attempt using McCormick’s food coloring, I tried another skein in neon pink.
The neon pink turned out not so neon-y, and I think that I should take a nap during every dyeing event while the dye sets up. I waited 30 minutes after adding the dye, and waiting for the yarn to absorb the dye, because this was the amount of time that was recommended by one of the tutorials I read online. The water was cool, and I started to rinse the yarn under a gentle stream of cool water from the faucet, and I noticed that one area, the area directly under the faucet, was noticeably lighter that the rest. Perhaps I was rinsing out the dye; perhaps I didn’t let the yarn sit long enough, perhaps the moon and stars were not in the proper alignment.
Really, who cares? I don’t particularly because I learned to take a nap after dyeing the yarn.
And here’s how the dyeing process played out…
I set everything up on the picnic table because I realized that I was losing daylight so I couldn’t dye outdoors, and I didn’t have adequate space indoors to lay everything out. So I started outside, and then moved indoors. (Shrug shoulders here.)
There’s the vinegar, the tiny bottle of neon pink food coloring, the measuring spoon, the natural yarn, and the aluminum pan.
The skein of yarn has been unfolded but is still tied together in a couple of spots. Looks spaghetti-ish, doesn’t it?
Now we head indoors so that I can put the pan in the bathtub and start the water boiling in the electric pitcher.
My Procter-Silex pitcher has a handy marking inside for 4 cups, which is exactly the amount of water I need for soaking the yarn.
Hi, and welcome to my bathtub. The first 4 cups of boiling water, along with 4 tablespoons of vinegar, is added to the center of the pan so as not to disturb the yarn very much. I don’t want felt.
I’ve added the second 4 cups of boiling water and 4 tablespoons of vinegar, after making sure the yarn is completely submerged and wet. Here’s the first drop of dye added to the yarn.
I used the entire tiny bottle of food coloring which has about 164 drops in it. Who knew?
After a few minutes, the yarn is really soaking up the dye. One way to know for sure that the yarn is not ready, aside for sticking your hand into hot wet yarn, is to look at a water sample, which clearly has dye in it.
Thirty minutes later, the water is cool and the water sample is clear, indicating that the yarn has soaked up the dye.
I add a few drops of dishwashing detergent and rinse the yarn of any residual dye. This is the part where I noticed that the dye appeared to be washing out so I stopped with the rinsing. I think next time I will take the nap at this stage so the yarn itself can nap and rest, too.
The yarn is now dry, and I’ve hung it next to the original green yarn. You can clearly see the lighter area in the pink on the right. I’m not completely happy with it. Perhaps I’ll re-dye it.
Or perhaps I’ll take a nap.
What color to dye next? Neon purple or neon turquoise?
Tags: Enjoying the day
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