The Dye Pot

Here Comes the Sun!

Materials

Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 2 yellow, 1/4 purple
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Here comes the sun!

I put the yarn in tepid water to soak. Then I dropped the dye tablets into about 3/4c of white vinegar - this is more vinegar than you actually need to effect the dyeing process, but it won't hurt anything :) I squeezed most of the water out of the yarn (soak time - about 20 minutes) and set it aside. I added the dye solution to the soak water, stirred until water and dye were thoroughly mixed and then poured it into the crock pot. Then I added the yarn to the dye bath, put the lid on the crock and set the temperature gauge to high. It took about 70 minutes for the yarn to exhaust the dye.





I hadn't tried dyeing with the Paton's merino before but it was a pleasant experience. It didn't full even a little bit (as Lionbrand's Fisherman's Wool frequently does). didn't compact down, didn't get fuzzy and took the dye very nicely. This may be the first time I've tried the Paton's, but it won't be the last.





The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.

Notes: Aside of how nice the yarn turned out to be, the only surprise here was the end color. I had been aiming for something in the copper-to-terra cotta range and when it came out of the crock pot, I could see I had missed it by a mile :) Turns out that while I had intended to use orange as the primary color, what I grabbed was yellow. Go figure! Still, it's a very cheerful and pleasant color without being too, terribly eye-watering and will make a great accent color for any number of projects.

Posted by Robbyn on 06/02 at 03:10 PM