I realized last week that indie dyers are worth every penny we pay them for their gorgeous creations. This realization (OK, not really so much of a realization, I always understood that a lot of effort, thought, patience and time went into dyeing, and I think that should be reflected in the price of goods that are sold) came as I tried my hand at overdyeing some Blue Sky Cotton.
The original yarn
My husband wandered into the kitchen and thought I had lost my mind and decided to feed my yarn habit, literally - "You're making yarn soup?!"
"Yarn Soup"
The top picture shows the Blue Sky Cotton I purchased with an eye toward knitting Tomato. I'm not sure what I was thinking. Let's just say that I would look absolutely awful in this color! I think it would look spectacular on someone with a deep olive skin tone, or an African American. But it would do nothing for my pasty face!
I figured that a good solution would be to overdye it. Everyone always talks about this mythical overdyeing process, so I figured it couldn't be too hard, right? I ordered some Cushing Direct dye from Earth Guild, with a hope that I could turn the above yarn into a pretty chocolate brown. The directions state that you need to the yarn to simmer on the stovetop in a glass, enamel or stainless steel vessel. I didn't have any of those, and I couldn't find one at the Goodwill, so I decided to improvise and use my crockpot. I needed to dye 7 skeins of yarn, and using the crockpot limited me to dyeing two skeins at a time. I knew it would take a little longer, but I was careful to write down exactly what I did, so that I could replicate it each time.
Drying in the sun
The final result
The results are not horrible, but it is not the gorgeous chocolate brown I had lovingly dreamed of. I have ordered additional dye, so I may see if I can borrow a larger appropriate vessel, and dye all seven skeins again.
Overall, I enjoyed the exercise, but ultimately decided that I will leave the dyeing to the experts. After all, they make the beautiful yarn in the final picture. That's far better than anything I could ever create. And this way I can focus more on knitting.
Ooohhhh! Yarn dyed by people with a knack for such things.
3 comments:
Ooooh. If the blue sky cotton doesn't have any sort of wool in it, and if you used the cushing's acid dyes (and not the direct dyes), I can see why you didn't get that chocolate brown.
You should be able to get that lovely chocolate brown with a good fiber-reactive dye (or the cushing's "direct dye").
It may not have turned the color you wanted, but it is a wonderful earthy tone mustard! I love it!
I did use the direct dyes; I have only myself to blame for the lack of success! I think that I am going to knit up what I have, and then decide if I want to overdye the sweater once it's complete. We'll see!
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