Kettle dyeing with Kool-Aid

I’ve seriously found a new addiction. Dyeing yarn is really fun! This time, I decided to try kettle dyeing. I dyed yarn I had on hand – the colour was pewter and now it’s pinks and purples and oranges and grey. And it smells all fruity.

My kettle dyeing experience wasn’t as great as my first attempt at dyeing wool. I was dyeing 4 skeins at once (2 skeins per pot) and I was paying too much attention to the kids not swishing the wool too much that i forgot to make sure that the dye had gone through all my layers. There’s lots of grey in my final product — but really, that’s ok – the colours go very well with grey! Also — the instructions i read said to simmer until wanter runs clear. I did — but when I rinced it, the colour ran. I did a hair conditioner rince and then I did a eucalan rince — and both ran a bit. Last week in the steam basket method — I didn’t have any colour running — so perhaps I didn’t simmer long enough or perhaps I should have steamed it afterwards as well.. not sure.

Elizabeth & I, and yarn about to start ‘cooking’. I didn’t notice we were in the photograph – otherwise I would have made sure to get Alexandre in the shot too!

I’ve started the shalom cardigan as mentioned here– although I’m not yet sold on it. I love the cardigan – I’m not sold on the gage I’m using… which is part of the issue I had with Adam’s sweater — but without doing math to modify the pattern, I had to use these needles – and of course the added bonus of not having to buy NEW needles (as in put project on hold while I managed to take myself to a store somewhere to find needles…) If i don’t love it when it’s done, I’ll unravel and figure something out!

Tags: handmade, kitchen, Knitting, wool

• February 2, 2010
• Crafting, In the Kitchen, Knitting
• 4 Comments