Fun with Dye in 30 minutes.

I've always put off experimenting with dyes because I thought it would take an huge amount of time and I haven't had a weekend free since the Christmas.

Well I was home sick yesterday and I was getting a little stir crazy by the afternoon so I decided to brew up some nice Colour Your Own merino sock wool from Knitpicks .

First of all, soak the yarn in water and a little dishwashing liquid. - 10 minutes





I would assume that one would already have the dyes. I used Pebeo Seta dyes which I got from a craft shop. Apparently the dyes are used for tye dyeing and silk painting and the label also says all natural fibers.





Get your work area ready - 10 minutes. I wrapped the table in cling wrap and got my squeezy bottles filled with dye. I had also squeezed out all the water from the wool.




Paint the wool - 10 minutes

I started to squeeze the dye on the skein and also rolled it around a lot to get maximum coverage. I couldn't take a photo of this part cos - well my hands were dirty.

But here's what the end result looks like before steaming




I was all excited as the colours looked very dark and intense but let me tell you, a lot of it washes off later. I'm not sure if this due to the brand of dye as I can't find anyone who has used this brand for wool and blogged about it.

Ok that's the end of the dyeing part. The rest is all the steaming and washing and and washing and drying, not much fun any more.

I got a nice cheap little steamer from the local super for RM 30.00 ( USD$7 or so) which will only be used for dying
Steam the skein for 30 -45 minutes




Then let the skein cool to room temperature before rinsing. This took the better part of the evening and or in tv terms - two episodes of Deadwood, one episode each of American Idol and Medical Investigation - in knitting terms - one sleeve of Samus until the beginning of the sleeve cap.

Then I rinsed and rinsed the skeins until I was so sick of rinsing the water was almost clear and a hell of a lot of dye ran out. So much that the skeins look very washed out at the end of it. I am waiting for it to dry completely before taking a pic of the final result.

Check back again soon for the final photo.