In case you're not a knitter and that sentence didn't make sense to you, these socks were knitted from a single ball (skein) of yarn that has been dyed in a factory somewhere so that the stripes form as you knit.
Yes, it IS just like magic. Or, as my friend Carol's husband calls it; witchcraft!
Whatever you call it, it's pretty darn cool.
What would be even cooler? Dyeing your own!
So, you start with an undyed skein of yarn. Like this.
Not just "white" yarn, it has to be un-dyed.
Then you DON'T do this with it;
Because now you get to spend the next three days untangling that mess. NOT fun.
OK, you've finally gotten it untangled. Now you need a plan.
I did the fairly obvious. I was knitting a pair of self striping socks with a pattern I liked, so I simply pulled out an entire length of the pattern, measured each color section, and then decided on my own colors for each section. Easy as pie.
I came up with something like this:
(click to enlarge)
It's rough, but it worked.
I needed the yarn to be in lengths of about 46 feet to complete my pattern. (You don't have to be exact with it, but close). To do that, I placed a kitchen chair at our back door, front door and in the bathroom, then strung the yarn around all three chairs until I ran out of yarn. (I used an old piece of yarn first to measure where to place the chairs.)
Lucky for me our cat was not interested in this project, and for some reason our dog was scared to death of all this craziness and stayed on the couch.
Now, you have to be sure to tie the yarn at various points to avoid it getting tangled (again). I followed Julie's method.
Then I marked what color each section was to be dyed (with a safety pin and paper). My pattern written on paper came in handy here.
Next comes the "fun" part.
You get to dye the yarn! Yay!
I used Wilton paste food dye and liked it.
So, mix up your chosen colors. Whatever appeals to you. And that's what I went with. I kept hearing advice like, "Just go with it, whatever happens it will probably be a cool looking sock when you knit it up. Don't sweat it too much." Good advice.
I set our roasting pan on the stove top and placed some water inside, then into that water bath I placed my dyeing pots - mason jars and a pyrex dish. You should soak your yarn for 30 minutes in plain water to get it ready to absorb the dye so I simply did that in the mason jars first.
I also marked each jar with the dye color for that section of yarn. Yeah, it takes some coordination to get the yarn into the correct jar. I ended up using two jars for the burgundy color since that was my main color.
There is some overlap between jars so having on plastic gloves is a great idea, and having a few pair is even better. You'll be dipping the overlapped yarn into the proper dye jar to get it to absorb the color.
I used the pyrex dish to do some dots with dye on that part of the yarn. I really liked the way that turned out and I liked it even better when I accidentally dripped some blue dye in there also. So, those happy little accidents can turn out nicely.
Some advice; don't try to dye anything black. It didn't work for me. And try not to add an excessive amount of dye to the jars. When the dye is all absorbed the water eventually clears. And trust me, you've got to rinse the yarn until it runs clear and it will take a lot less time/water if you use only as much dye as you need to achieve your color.
I started with cold water and heated it up slowly. Never boil it! I allowed the dye on the yarn for 20 minutes, then poured in some white vinegar and let that sit for 10 minutes more. You can stir it but do so gently to avoid tangling the yarn. Allow to cool in the jars or carefully remove and cool on towels.
Then you need to pull the yarn out and rinse, rinse, rinse in the sink until the water runs clear. Old bath towels are very helpful here. I strung towels from the stove to the sink and all over the floor. And I managed to not leave any evidence of dye in the kitchen.
Then it needs to dry. I used our spare shower with a sweater drying rack and another towel underneath.
Throughout all of this handling, be very careful not to tangle the yarn. It's tricky but just work carefully, patiently and slowly. Having tied up your yarn earlier with waste yarn really helps keep it from getting tangled.
The next day I spread it all out in the living room and walked around forming it into a ball of yarn. Be sure not to wind it too tightly or you'll stretch out your pretty yarn.
And ta da!
The (nearly) finished result;
I'm very happy with it. Will I do this again? Oh yes, I will!
For more info on dyeing your own self striping yarn:
See Eunny Knit
Beatle Wear
Streets and YOs
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