More Kettle-Dyed Yarn : Green, Blue, and Stormy Skies

Teal Blue (Procion-Dyed) Wool Yarn

What do I do when I have a day off?  I relish in the extra time for crafting!

Greens and Blue Skeins

The boys went on an adventure to Appleton to get OKL a bona fide fountain pen for his high school graduation and send-off to college.  I stayed home so I could have free reign in the kitchen to kettle dye another batch of yarn.

This time, I was experimenting with using an old trouser sock to hold the loose balls of yarn together.  It looked like a fat sausage in the pot.  As expected, it acted as a resist, somewhat, but the dye looks like it got through just fine -- in most cases.  I think I can squeeze, mix, and stir those packets to get more dye to penetrate.

For the most part, I was using old Procion dyes.  Using Dharma's instructions for Procion Dye on wool (no soda ash, as it can destroy the protein fibers).   I sized it for roughly 1/2 pound of fiber, or 2 balls of merino wool yarn, each at 100 grams.

In the Dye Pot,
1-1/2 T salt
1/3 cup white vinegar
Enough water to cover / submerge the balls of yarn.
Heat this until it gets just ready to simmer.

For the dye concentrates, I mixed up
1 tsp dye powder with
about 2 cups warm water.
1 put that in a plastic bottle with a tight-fitting cap, so I could shake it up until the dye powder was completely dissolved.

Once the dye pot was hot enough (just ready to simmer, not boil), I added the dye concentrate -- not usually the entire bottle (except for the teal). Stir that up.
Then add the balls of yarn.

I did not pre-soak these balls, so they took a little more work to get them to soak in the liquid and be comfortable in the dye bath.  It would be worth experimenting to see what effect the pre-soaked balls have on this technique.

Then I let them simmer on the stove for about 1 hour.  I am amazed at how the Procion dye nearly exhausts with this technique -- I see that a lot with the food coloring, but usually not with the Procion on cotton.

Let them cool before you remove them from the dye pot.

Here are the results:

Leaf Green with a splash of Moss Green:

Leaf Green with Moss Green, fresh out of the pot.

Greens fresh off the niddy noddy.

Leaf Green with Moss Green

Skeined up and looking pretty!

Teal Blue - I really like this one!  There seemed to be so much dye left in the pot half-way through, that I decided to add a 3rd loose ball to the pot.  I was careful not to disturb it much once it was in the pot, as I wanted the mottled effect that brings.

 This view of the Teal Blues on the Niddy Noddy really shows off the color changes in the gradient.

Teal Blue Skeins

Stormy Skies - Purples and grays:

Storm Clouds out of the pot.  

The one on the left was in the trouser sock, so it kept it's shape a little better.

The other one was fast and loose, and lost it's shape in the process.

I was hoping the trouser sock would help it keep it's general shape so it would be easier to unravel with fewer tangles.

 Storm Clouds, skeined up and pretty.

For future reference, this is the general technique I was using, demonstrated here by Rebecca at Chem Knits.  Keep in mind, I was using wool yarn and Procion dyes, so there are key differences with my results.  But the basic idea of throwing an intact ball of yarn into the dye pot is the key to getting the gradient.