The dyeing bug has struck again, but this time with my newly aquired acid dyes! I received these for Christmas last year, but since I was only a couple of months pregnant I decided to hold off for a while. But now the time has come!
I've never dyed with acid-dyes before (only food-safe dyes), so I decided to play it safe and use some worsted weight Fisherman's Wool for my first attempt. I wanted a semi-solid purple. I skeined it up, and soaked it in some tepid vinegar water while I mixed up my dyes and heated the dyebath. I chose two complementary purple dyes (Plum 822 and Lilac 845), and measured out 1/2 teaspoon of each dye into 1 cup boiling water for the dyestock.
I used about 1/2 cup of the Plum first... and then added the yarn to the simmering bath. It soaked for about 20 minutes, and I then I turned the heat off and let it sit until the water was clear. After rinsing the yarn, I carefully twisted the skein up and then added it back to the dyepot. I poured a little of the Lilac 845 dyestock directly onto the skein, and then added 1/2 cup to the simmering water in the pot. I let this simmer for about 20 minutes until the dye bath was once again clear. After cooling, the yarn was rinsed, spun dry in my salad spinner and hung to dry overnight.
But, what to knit from the finished yarn? I decided to go with the "Classic Mittens by Bernhard Ulmann". We had a HUGE (for us) snowstorm here in Western Oregon in the past couple weeks, and it became apparent just how many pairs of mittens we didn't have! Here's my finished project:
Happy dyeing experiments of your own!
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