Fresh from the crock pot. Since I finished those red socks last week, I had to dye more yarn, so I could start the next pair for winter. Always need a portable handwork project.
This is the basic procedure to dye sock yarn:
Let the 2 balls of wool yarn pre-soak in room temp water for 30 minutes.
I am using Red Hart Chic Sheep Merino wool yarn by Marly Bird. This was a light gray (linen) color, instead of white to start with.
Mix the dye color:
- 1/2 tsp. Wilton's Blue Dye (food coloring)
- Plus 6 drops pink
- 12 drops red
- 1 drop black
1/4 cup vinegar
Add this to the crock pot full of water.
Squeeze out the yarn balls that had been soaking and add them to the dye pot. I had them "bound" in onion bags to act as a resist and to keep them from unraveling in the dye pot. This also gives a little more variation in the color varigations.
Turn the crock pot on high for 1 hour; Then turn down to low for a few hours until the color is taken up by the yarn, and the water runs clear. You may need to add more vinegar later on to encourage the yarn to take up more of the dye. Once the water runs clear, turn the crock pot off and let cool -- I usually let it sit overnight and check it in the morning.
Here are my still wet balls of yarn -- purple on the outside and blue on the inside.
This is probably the most tedious part of the whole process: unwinding the wet balls onto the niddy-noddy so they can dry. The wet yarn tangles as the balls unwind. But it's worth doing because you can clearly see how the colors change through the length of yarn.
Once on the niddy-noddy, I let the hanks hang until dry.
These came out beautifully!
If you want to learn more about dying wool yarn with acid dyes (aka food coloring), check out ChemKnits. Although she does not use a slow cooker (that I've seen), she offers a wealth of knowledge on this topic!
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