Remember that little Easter egg 1 particle skein of yarn dyeing experiment success?
Overdyed with Easter egg dyes, Nebbiolo cowl pattern by Thea Coleman
Yarns prepped for overdying
I thought I’d just multiply and duplicated what I did the first time. What could possibly go wrong?
Well. A lot. For one thing, I wanted a dark teal color from that bright green. OK, use all of the turquoise & blue dye pills & every other possible blue food dye in the house & maybe some black.
Every blue & turquoise food dye in the house
This is where math would have been a good idea. And doing more research and learn for other experienced dyers, like this one: http://www.dyeyouryarn.com
Mistakes:
- I used too much vinegar in the soaking bath.
- I used too hot a soaking water.
- I mixed all the dyes together before pouring them over the soaking yarn.
- I poured them all at once into the soaking water
That dye stuck to the yarn exactly where it was poured.
Blotchy ugly yarn dyeing
And the reason I didn’t post anything last week:
- I was exhausted & defeated by simple Easter egg dyeing.
- I have to figure out what I did wrong.
- I hate wasting good yarn.
It took a second whole day of driveling small batches of very diluted turqoise, blue & black food coloring to get closer to what I originally wanted. Repeated over & over again. (Cool soaking water and no extra vinegar)
I’m thrilled with the final results. It’s not going to work for the sweater. It will make a beautiful hat, figureless mitts, & big shawl set. I’ll save that project for later.
Over over overdyed yarn
Now, I have to find another yarn in stash to make the original sweater.
Here’s the finished cowl & ‘matching’ hat. Buck hat & Nebbiolo cowl both designed by Thea Coleman.
‘Matching’ hat & cowl, Buck hat designed by Thea Coleman
Chat with you next week.
I did another ‘bigger’ project: recovered kitchen bar chairs.
slanted stitches 