Taste the Rainbow

What's the best way to lighten up a dreary grey day here in the Pacific Northwest?  To dye your own rainbow, of course!  I've been wanting to dye some rainbow sock yarn for months... but there was never enough time (or opportunity, with all of the littles underfoot).  So.... I waited for the perfect opportunity (AKA naptime) and went for it.

 

I decided to try dyeing my "rainbow" two different ways (on separate skeins).  I wanted to do a "self-striping" skein and then a handpainted skein - and contrast the two methods.  So the first order of business was to prepare the yarn. 

 

I wound the first skein into a center-pull ball, pulled out my "Martha Stewart Craft Loom" that I have never, ever used... and set up the bars and pegs so that I could wind mini-skeins onto it easily.  I wound about 5 times per section, and then moved onto the next section.  I figured this would give me even stripes of all of the rainbow colors (which would then repeat over and over again in the socks).  I tied up all of the mini-skeins separately and put them into a vinegar/water bath to soak. 

 

 



For the other skein that I wanted to hand-paint, I just popped the entire skein into the same soaking water, and set about preparing my dyes.  I made sure to do this part while everyone else was busy elsewhere, since I needed a facemask and gloves to protect myself from the powdered dyes.  I measured out 1/2 teaspoon of 3 different PRO Chemical acid dyes (red (magenta 338), yellow (yellow 119), and blue (blue 490) into mason jars, and dissolved the powder in 1 cup of boiling water.  I then drew out 3-4 tablespoons with a syringe of each of these "primary" colors to mix up the secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) to complete my rainbow.

 

 

I topped up the jars with more boiling water to give the bath enough volume to dye the yarn more evenly, and then put a portion of each dye into squeeze bottles for the handpainted skein.

 

 

By this time, my yarn had soaked for about an hour, and I was ready to commence!  I put each one of the "mini-hanks" from the loom board into a mason jar sitting in a bot of boiling water on the stove, and cranked the heat up to keep the mixture just below boiling.

 

 

Then it was time to head outside for the hand-painted skein.  I set up a card table on our deck (carefully covered in plastic trash bags, and a light layer of plastic wrap), and layed out my wetted skein in a large oval shape.

 

Then it was time to enlist the help of the two older kids (we are homeschoolers - after all.  I mean... this project has "SCIENCE", "ART" and "COLOR THEORY" written all over it!!!)  I helped them get out the plastic gloves to protect their skin, and we squirted, pressed, mixed and squished our dye all in.

 

We then mopped up all of the leftover dye and water from the table, and wrapped the yarn up in its plastic wrap sheath, and steamed it in a tin foil "boat" over a boiling pan of water for about 20-30 minutes to set the color.  I just love the resulting yarn!

 

 

We also removed the self-striping yarn from the mason jars on the stovetop, rinsed it until clear with a little bit of dishwashing soap, re-skeined it and dryed it as well.  Here's the result from that experiment: 

However, as anyone who has ever bought hand-painted yarn can tell you, when it's all wrapped up in a skein straight from the dyepot... the color can be a might deceptive.  You really need to re-skein it to get a better idea of what it will look like in a finished knitted item.  Here's the two yarns after drying and reskeining.

 

The Self-Striping, Mason Jar yarn:

 

 

And the Hand-Painted, Homeschool Friendly Yarn:

 



The handpainted yarn ended up just a tad lighter than I would have expected, probably because it wasn't exposed to as much dye as the mason jar yarn.  But both look good enough to eat! (Can't you just taste the rainbow?)  And the best part is that the kids were THRILLED with their hand-dyed product!  Each skein is about 450 yards of a superwash, nylon mix and will be just the thing for hand-knitted socks :)

 

 

 

Edited to add:  It's taken me a couple of months, but I now have the kid's handpainted yarn all knit up into socks, using the "Vanilla Latte" pattern on Ravelry.  I love the way the differently dyed yarns ended up looking!  Here is my daughter modeling her socks with an Eye of Partridge heel:

and my son, with his beloved, super bright warm feet:

My older kids (12 & 9) were just the right age for this kind of dyeing.  If you are trying this with littles, I would probably stick with the food-safe dyes (for their skin, and your sanity) - but I think all ages would enjoy a similar project!  I hope this post inspires you to do some dyeing of your very own :)  Enjoy!

Hand-Dyed Mittens

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!

Easy Textured Socks

I have finally begun to accept the idea that until my children are a tad older.... patterns with lace charts and complicated sequences are just going to have to wait.  After 3+ interruptions in the middle of a complicated little bit of knitting, you might as well wash your hands of that row and start over!

Enter, "The SKYP socks".  I've been doing plain vanilla stockinette socks for quite a while now.. and while I love the self-striping yarns, and my own hand-dyed creations, sometimes you just yearn for something a little more complicated (but not TOO complicated... see above!)  This is why I love this pattern, For a minimum of effort in memorization, you end up with a lovely little stitch that sets your socks apart :)  If you are on Ravelry, the free pattern is "Simple Skyp Socks" by Adrienne Ku

So far, I've knit this pattern up in a lovely tonal stripe in Araucania Ranco Solid, in Eggplant:

and also in some Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn by Brown Sheep (a more highly variegated yarn):

One other textured sock pattern I really like (and it is also simple) is the free pattern "Hermione's Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder".  This pattern also works well with a self-striping yarn:

I've knit this pattern in some hand-dyed self-striping tonal yarn, too (toddler socks):

So there you have it :)  My solution to the plain vanilla stockinette sock (although I keep plenty of those on hand as well!)  Happy Knitting!

Over the Rainbow

I know, I know... I've been promising ever since this post that I would be dyeing up another two stranded sock blank - RAINBOW STYLE!  I came across a wonderful de-stash on Ravelry for several skeins of Wool 2 Dye For "Platinum Sock" yarn (75% superwash Merino/25% nylon).  I divided one of these skeins in half by weight, and then knit up a 90 stitch wide, two-stranded sock blank at the lowest tension I could get away with on my Bond knitting machine.

After soaking my blank for about an hour in a mixture of tepid water and vinegar, I spun out the excess water using a salad spinner, and painted on my chosen rainbow colors:  Wilton Icing Colors in(Christmas Red, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Sky Blue, Violet).  I ended up dissolving about 1/4 of a teaspoon in about a cup of hot water (in squeeze bottles).  The dye solution was applied with foam brushes in a chevron pattern to help color mixing in the final knitting. 

After the dye solutions were applied (and massaged into the blank with glove-covered hands), I then used an old towel to gently blot excess moisture (to keep the colors from bleeding into each other during the heat set process), and then I wrapped my blank with the plastic wrap to make it into a tube, and coiled it into a into a tidy little package.  Instead of steam setting, this time I used my microwave, and microwaved the blank in three 2 minute intervals with 5 minute rest times.   After cooling, the blank rinsed clear, indicating that the dye had been set.

 

I prefer to knit from center pull balls rather than straight from the blank (I don't enjoy the curly tangle of yarn I can get from the blank), so I reskeined the yarn into two separate skeins while it was still damp, and then hung them to dry. 

 

I cast on for 2-at-a-time magic loop, top down socks, and knit away!  There is something very satisfying about knitting with your own hand-dyed yarn, especially watching the color blending and anticipating the next new color!  They are hard to put down.  The W2D4 Platinum sock yarn is very cushy and soft, too!

 

 

Here is my darling daughter modeling the finished socks (with orange/red afterthought heels).  They are just a tad too big for her (hence the wrinkles, lol!)

 

 

Happy rainbow knitting of your own!

 

 

THIS is love :)

My hubby wanted two new hunting hats for his upcoming birthday (as well as his elk trip) and he requested the pattern Man Hat by Haven Leavitt for both (the same pattern I used to make the hat from my handspun).   He really likes this “Man Hat” pattern.. no fuss/no frills, and it fits him well.  Plus, it's reversible!

The green one is in bulky malabrigo (a joy to knit, and OH SO SOFT) and it knit up a lovely moss color.  I've never worked with malabrigo before... but I will definitely be revisiting this yarn again soon!

The orange one… well…. the orange one is from a thrift store 100% wool sweater I unravelled and dyed EYE-SEARING HUNTER SAFETY ORANGE with food coloring on the stovetop (quite the undertaking, I might add. That is love). The yarn started off cream, and I mixed up some “Orange Sunset” with yellow and red to get that shade, lol! It is knit double (in case there is a blizzard, of course). I’m pretty sure you could wear it as armor.  It practically stands up on its own, and he thinks it is PERFECT (what more can you ask?)

Carrie's Review?  This is an excellent, and well fitting pattern... (and free, I might add!)  The perfect go-to hat for the manly men in your life :)

Stripey Goodness

Oh yes... another sock blank.  I took the plunge and tried a slightly different dyeing technique than my first sock blank I blogged about here.  This time I knit my double stranded sock blank (using my knitting machine) approximately 90 stitches wide (instead of 60) and added a turquoise blue stripe all down one side.  The other 2/3 of the blank was dyed in various shades of pink and lilac.

I also decided that I didn't want to knit straight from the blank, so I placed two chair backs on either side of my blank, and reskeined both strands of yarn at the same time to avoid tangling.  It worked out very well, and I only had to let the blank dangle a couple times to avoid excessive twisting. 

I wound both skeins into center pull balls using my swift and ball winder, and then cast on for 2-at-a-time Magic Loop socks (64 stitches on size 1 needles).  I used the AfterThought Heel Socks by Laura Linneman pattern, and ended up with these beauties!

I love, love, love the way that the blue is carried as stripes through the whole of the sock, as well as the gradual shifting of the pink stripes to the purple.  It is so much fun to see how the blank will knit up after it is dyed that it is hard to put these down!  Here they are again modeled by my lovely daughter.

Next on the docket?  I'm thinking RAINBOW socks... dyed blank style!

From Blank to Sock....

Look what I got :)  A new-to-me knitting machine!!  After a couple days of threading it wrong, and messing with the tension, and watching countless YouTube videos, I finally managed to knit up a two-stranded sock blank with some Cascade Heritage sock yarn.  I weighed the skein, and cut it into 2 identical balls, and just knit the two of them together at the lowest tension I could get away with.  This particular blank is 60 stitches wide, and I just knit until I ran out of yarn (took about 15 minutes, start to finish).  The red yarn is some waste acrylic to keep my live stitches from unravelling until I was ready.

Why am I so excited about a 2-stranded sock blank, you ask?  Oh.... because I wanted to use some of THIS!  Oh yes... let the dyeing COMMENCE!

Here's the whole process!  I soaked my blank in a mixture of tepid water and vinegar for about 3 hours (while I put all the kiddos down for nightime, lol).

 

While it was soaking, I mixed up my dye solutions in some small squirt bottles.  I used Wilton's icing gels for the color, and added a small amount of brown to each base color to deepen the undertones.  When I had my dye solutions prepared, I prepped my work surface by laying out several large white plastic bags, and then stretched a large piece of plastic wrap and layed out my blank (after spinning it in my salad spinner to remove excess water).  Then, THE FUN PART!  Using foam brushes, I painted on my chosen colors in chevron shapes (this helps the colors to blend as you are knitting).  To avoid white/uncolored spots in the yarn, it helps to stretch the blank slightly to get in between stitches, and also to mop up excess liquid to keep the colors from running/bleeding too much and becoming muddy. 

 

 

Once my design was complete, I used an old towel to mop up any leftover liquid (although, because I was using superwash yarn soaked in vinegar, all of my leftover liquid was clear as the dye was all in the blank).  Then, I wrapped my blank with the plastic wrap to make it into a tube, and coiled it into a into a tidy little package. To set the color, bring 2" of water to a simmer in a large pot with a vegetable steamer (or in my case, a piece of aluminum foil with holes poked in it) in order to keep your sock blank out of the water. Place your plastic-wrapped sock blank bundle in the rack and steam it for 30 minutes, timing from when the water reaches a boil. (I did have a lid on the pot, but took it off for photographs in the picture below)

 

After steaming for 30 minutes, turn off the burner and remove the pot from the heat.  At this point, you should let the sock blank cool in its plastic wrapping right in the pot.  If you open the hot plastic wrap before it has had a chance to cool down, you could get a steam burn (and those REALLY hurt). If you are like me, and want to cool your bundle a little more quickly, you can add it (still wrapped) to a bath of tepid water, and wait for it to cool.  At this point, open the plastic wrap and remove the sock blank in order to rinse it with lukewarm water until the water runs clear. I like to wrap my rinsed sock blank in a towel and then step on it to remove excess water, but you can also use a salad spinner, or your washing machine’s spin cycle to spin the remaining water out of the blank. Place your sock blank on a hanger and allow it to air dry. (It is best to do this over a towel, because water will wick to the bottom of the blank and drip off).
When your blank is dry, you can knit socks 2-at-a-time (I prefer top-down magic loop) directly from your blank:

 

And then be prepared for it to be hard to put this project down as you keep telling yourself, "Just one more color.....".  It really is quite fun to see the design unfold!  Here are my finished socks (with my first afterthought heel, nontheless, as I was trying to preserve the color striping -- I used

this tutorial by the KnitGirrrls)

 

 

I've got several more blanks waiting to be knit up, and I will be sure to share those as well!  Hope you enjoy dyeing some blanks of your own!