Dyed in the Yard

Two years ago at the Great Lakes Sheep & Fiber Festival, Kimmie and I found bags of wool yarn for a very cheap price: 3 pounds for 5 dollars. We bought four such bags, planning to dye the yarn that summer.

Two years later, yarn still un-dyed, we had the first annual Sockstravaganza at the yarn shop, dyeing a ton of sock yarn and having a great time. A week after the Sockstravaganza, Dani and I worked at a fiber show in Troy, Ohio, and each of us bought seven different acid dyes, hoping again to dye those bags full of yarn this summer.

Last Sunday night and all day Monday, we finally got our opportunity! My mom graciously allowed us to use her backyard and kitchen to experiment with the dyes and see what we could come up with.

Dani wound a bunch of attached smaller balls to dye them in gradual colors.

After rinsing.

Drying.

Winding back into a mega-skein. This turned out awesomely. She's going to make a big felted knitting bag with it. I can't wait to see how it knits up.

Kimmie did something similar, winding small balls and dyeing them in graduated rainbow colors. She took some great pictures of the yarn she dyed and put them on her blog.

Pretties!

These are most of the ones that I dyed. No special little balls or giant skeins for me.

This one is destined to become a felted bowl. I love how saturated the blue is on this skein. It was fascinating to see the wide range of shades you could get from the same dye.

These will become a new pair of fuzzy feet!

I'll likely use these two together for something. They go together really well, and the brown even has red spots all through it. Could be chicken pox, or I didn't stir the dye completely. Both skeins are larger skeins... any suggestions?

Lastly and my favorite from the day: watermelon yarn! It was completely unintentional; I used leftover greens and leftover red/orange and left just the slightest bit of white in between. I'd never be able to duplicate it, but I love it. I almost don't want to knit with it, but I can't wait to see how it looks when it's knitted. No ideas for this one either.

Thanks Kimmie, Dani, Mom, and Aunt Karyl Lynn for great fun! I can't wait for the next dyeing party.