The Dye Pot

Rusty Venture

I wanted to make some fingerless gloves for my aunt but didn't have appropriate yarn available. I wanted to do a modified version of the Dana Victoria mitts which involves complex patterning - so a variegated yarn was right out. Unfortunately, all the fingering weight I had was multi-colored. So that meant dyeing something. I acquired two balls of Patons Kroy sock yarn in natural cream and started plotting :)

I was staying with my father, following his pre-Christmas surgery, and didn't have access to my usual tools and materials - so I found ways to make do with what was available and what I could easily procure at the supermarket.
Materials

100 grams fingering weight sock yarn - 75% wool/25% nylon (Patons Kroy, natural cream)
Kool-aid - 1 packet each Strawberry and Orange, 2 packets of black cherry
Six teabags steeped in about a quart of boiling water and allowed to cool a bit

Method

Stove top

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Rusty Venture

I soaked the yarn as usual. Because this is a superwash item, I felt free to knead and squeeze as necessary to get it thoroughly wet so the soak didn't really take any time. I combined the kool-aid colors with the tea and put this mixture into a pasta pot (you know - one of the kind that has a colander insert?) along with enough water to cover the yarn. Between the citric and ascorbic acids in the kool-aid and the tannic acid contribution of the tea, there was more than enough to get the dye to stick to the yarn so I didn't bother adding any vinegar this time. Then I added the yarn, stirred everything so that all the yarn and the dye made good contact and then turned the heat on. When the pot came to a boil, I turned the heat down to a medium simmer and let it go. It took about an hour for the dye to fully exhaust - a bit quicker than my usual crock pot procedure. Then the yarn was washed, wrapped in a towel to get rid of as much water as possible and hung to dry.





When the yarn was dry, I wound it and made my aunt's mitts. These were worked on size 1 US (2.25 mm) needles.






Notes: While the yarn dyed beautifully and knitted up well, I would have liked it to be a bit softer. I do understand, however, that this was intended to be used for socks and was likely designed to withstand a lot more stress and wear than the mitts will probably ever get :)

I rather enjoyed the stove-top process. I have done it before, but only rarely and it always surprises me how quickly the whole thing goes. I need to explore this more. The only disadvantage is that I'm not comfortable putting something on the fire and then leaving the kitchen - so I had to stay right there while things were working. With the crock pot, I don't feel that kind of constraint.

Posted by Robbyn on 02/04 at 03:57 PM