"My Dyeing Daze......"

I spun 2 thin singles of white, 100% Merino Superwash, and then plied them together for sock yarn. This is a photo taken in the midst of my plying them together. The next part of the process was new in some ways, practiced in others. I was going to dye this white yarn, but not use Kool Aid as my dye, as I had in my 1st attempt at dyeing yarn. I found out after dyeing with Kool Aid, that it is not "light fast", and would fade if exposed to bright sunlight. I decided that if I was going to dye my yarns/rovings, I should use a more permanent dye process, and chose one that uses a crock pot. :) Yes, a regular crock pot, which I purchased expressly for dyeing (I had great faith that this was how I would continue to dye wool). ;)


I set about dyeing the spun yarn and some extra roving ("just in case I needed more of the yarn"). The color turned out beautifully, although not at all like I had anticipated. I "thought" I was going to have a variegated yarn. I had used too much dye and got an "almost" total coverage on the yarn. Day 1 of my dyeing is on the far left: the almost pure green yarn and roving. With Day 2 of dyeing (in the middle), I used a black and white roving, and again used too much dye, although I am happy with the results, and have spun 2 oz. of it already, to ply it with some of the roving I dyed on Day 3. As you can see, Day 3 (1 and 2 from the right) of dyeing went MUCH differently, but was closer to my original expectations. I am VERY pleased with this dyeing experience and plan on doing more.


A close up of Day 1's dyeing results. There is a slight amount of variegation, but it is very subtle.


Day 2's results. I think you are able to see the black and white roving used, and where there is more variegation in the dye on what was white roving. This is the roving that I spun and will ply with the nylon roving from Day 3.


A close up of Day 3's dyeing. The roving on the left is wool, while the one on the right is nylon. I was told that if I used nylon in my sock yarn, I would not have to use re-enforcing thread in the heels/toes of the socks I knit. The socks would then be 50% wool and 50% nylon. Notice how white the nylon is? And how bright the colors are compared to the wool? I'm anxious to see how they look when plied with the darker single from Day 2. I'm pretty sure that there will be photos taken of the yarn or finished socks. :)