Speckled Yarn by breaking Wilton's Violet
Here we are again! It's been a very productive Saturday to dye wool yarn. This time, I wanted to try making this speckled yarn, by simply dabbing on Wilton's Violet with a fork as demonstrated by Rebecca at ChemKnits / Dye Pot Weekly.
The yarn I used was a thin-ish merino wool yarn : Red Hart Chic Sheep by Marly Bird that I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Regular price was $10 a ball, but I got it at 30% off. It's listed as a medium weight (4) yarn, but it feels much thinner. It seems to have some kind of finish on it, too, so it doesn't really feel like other merinos.
Basic Technique for Speckled Yarn
- 100 g of wool pre-soaked in room temperature water for 1 hour
- with 3 T white vinegar
- Squeeze out most of the water and work on a tray to protect your work surface.
- 1/8 tsp Wilton's Violet dissolved in
- 1 T Hot Water
- Dip a plastic form into the dye mixture(s) and dab onto the fiber. Move the fiber around until you have no big white patches and are happy with coverage.
- Steam fiber over boiling water for 30 minutes.
- Add a dash of salt to the steam bath.
- After the yarn has cooled, wash with dish soap and rinse until water runs clear.
COLOR Separation
It took the color beautifully! And the technique was so simple. I was amazed to see the color begin to spread and separate within just a few minutes of applying the color.
The only thing I would do differently is to flip the yarn over half-way through the steam-setting process. It looks like the bottom part of the hank may have gotten a little more steam, as the blue was able to spread more where it got more steam, than the top half. It's still a lovely dye job!
For my own future reference, or if you want to try this yourself, here is the Chem Knits blog post on the technique for making Speckled Yarn.
Here is The Dye Pot Weekly video that expertly demonstrates the Dabbing for Speckled Yarn process for this technique :
2 comments:
WOW! your yarn came out beautifully. I would love to try and do the same. What kind of pot did you use? Would it be like a Dutch oven?
Yes! I've very happy with this yarn.
I think it was just a regular stainless steel pot with a steamer basket on the stovetop. Though some of the other techniques use a crock pot or other pot on the stove top. Check out the videos from ChemKnits, and you'll see what she does.
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