Hand-dyeing my own yarns

[untonuggan]

I got some excellent advice about hand-dyeing over on knitting a bit ago (too Lyme-brain-y to link the exact post, but anyway, it's there). Just made a follow-up post, cross-posting here because I thought folks would be interested in the photos at the very least.

I ended up dyeing two lots of things, one lot of commercially spun yarn (Paton's DK superwash) with Wilton food dye using the microwave and another of Wensleydale sheep wool roving with Wilton food dye using an aluminum pot on the stovetop.

For a slightly more complete chronicle, check out the Flickr set.

Here is the hand-dyed Paton's, which came out mostly in a violet purple with some hints of dark blue and some dark pink. I used "teal", "burgundy" and "violet" dyes.


Here is the Wensleydale, which I dyed in the braid that it came in partly to preserve my sanity (tangled wet wool, anyone?) and partly to see what would happen. It ended up kind of tie-dyeing the wool, which was kind of cool. Also, the top of the wool ended up more of a pink and the bottom ended up more blue-purple. It created a really interesting and subtle effect in the spun yarn (next photo).


Here is the spun Wensleydale, in a colorway I am calling "Best Tea China", because it reminds me of the china tea set my grandmother gave me. I spun "from the fold", because Wensleydale is a longwool and can require a lot of pre-drafting. The lady at the yarn store recommended I try spinning from the fold when I spun Blue-Faced Leicester, and it turned out really well and was generally a lot easier. It does take away some of the strength of it being top, but at this point I don't mind. It also tends to mix the colors a bit, which is kind of cool IMO. Colors are very pale blue, bright white, bright pink. Same dyes as the first one, just different proportions and obviously very different wool/yarn. Was at first tempted to over-dye this (meaning dye it a second time), but I have changed my mind.


So there you have it! I'm hooked.

Comments

[tyger]

:O So awesome! :D :D :D I love the colours in the first one particularly, but I'm an unabashed purple fan, so. |D <3

[untonuggan]

*g* Thank you!!! <3

[northern]

The spun yarn looks very lovely! The name is perfect!

[untonuggan]

Thank you and thank you :D

[kaberett]

Hee! Thesea re both amazing.

(& for what it's worth, here's your previous post to knitting - I dug it out via this link.)

[untonuggan]

Thanks for the compliment!

And also thanks for the link for posterity's sake, and because later I will not have the brainz to scroll through - Lyme brain, why???

[alee_grrl]

Those are all gorgeous. I love how the colors turned out, and how that one batch looks after being spun. "Best Tea China" seems a good name for it. :)

[untonuggan]

Thank you very much! :D

[gwaihiril]

Prettiness! I love how the Wensleydale looks when spun.

[untonuggan]

Thanks! It was challenging to spin because the fibers are very curly, but it makes it very arty so I'm happy. :D

[rainbow]

Ooh, lovely, and Best Tea China came out wonderful after spinning <3

[untonuggan]

Thank you! :D <3