Dyeing adventures- alpaca and nylon

I bought some thick sock yarn off the Internet, but as always there is the peril of colour choices. What I thought from the photo was dark grey, undyed and hot pink turned out to be dark green, yellow and reddish pink. I have to say I was not in love with it, and I had 200g!

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My first response to "meh I don't like this colour" is "oh well I can always dye it". The problem here was that this is an alpaca and nylon mix, I had never dyed either of those before, and I had heard alpaca will felt if you look at it crossly.

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Since I really couldn't think of anything to make with the yarn I figured I would give it a go on one ball and see what happened. I skeined both and dunked one in a pot of blue dye.

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Woohoo! No felting and the nylon didn't melt (even though the pot got rather hot and may have boiled a little, I am not sure what the melting point of nylon is). The dyeing was not a total success- the colours are still not quite what I hoped for, but I think they are an improvement. This is most likely due to the high nylon content which is unaffected by the acid dyes, all the fluffy alpaca fibres are now a nice bright blue.

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I still don't know what to make, it is meant to be a sock yarn, so maybe socks, but there are quite a lot of fluffy alpaca fibres sticking out of the yarn, so it may be somewhat tickly.

FO Friday- Squares and show entries

FO for this week was dip dyeing some DK yarn in a raspberry colourway and using it to make two 8 inch squares.

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The first is a simple mitred square:

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The second used the Pie crust pattern by Sarah Bradberry, Rav link here.

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I had some village show entries that I can't count as 52 in52 projects under my own rules because they did not really take long enough to make, so I am putting their pictures in here.

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First up origami crane earrings following the directions on this site.

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They are teeny and pretty fiddly to make, but worth it.
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There was also a greetings card category, I made two as I couldn't decide which one to go for.

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I took a family vote, they opted for entering this one, which turned out to be a good choice
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I do quite like this one for its artsiness though. The crochet flowers are from the pattern for A maiden's glory headdress, on Rav here.
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And finally the sock yarn blanket square, hand dyed yarn.
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Book review- Hand dyeing yarn and fleece

This week it is all about the book Hand dyeing yarn and fleece by Gail Callahan. Amazon linky here.

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I have not had this book long, a little over a month, and would usually wait a bit longer before doing a review so I have time to use the book quite a bit and get a feel for how useful it really is. No need with this one, I love it already!

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There is loads of info in here, and it all seems to be the useful kind of stuff that sometimes you can't find in other places. In particular for me it was the dip dyeing info that swung it, the other books I had bought did not give any details on it and I wanted to know!

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The book starts with the pretty much standrad details of setting up for dyeing, health and safety, dye types and colour. No big suprises here but nicely written with plenty of pictures to keep it interesting.

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For me the best bit of this book is the method instructions. Every step is clearly illustrated with lovely pictures and good written instructions. Although some of the methods use microwaving rather than stovetop steaming which is my preferred method it is simple to transfer the techniques across.

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Finally there are some patterns given to show off the hand dyed yarns, including the dyeing instructions (a range of methods are used across the patterns). I have not used any of these but they seem well written and clear. I would not buy the book just for the patterns as there are only eight (fine for a dyeing book, less so for a pattern book) and while nice they are not really my personal FO style.

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Price wise I paid about £8, I would definately say that is good for what I have got from the book. I can also see myself coming back to it often to try out different methods so will have got my moenys worth out of it.

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A final good point is that the book is spiral bound inside the cardboard cover. It might seem odd to mention this but it really is fantasically helpful as it means the book will lie flat on the table without having anything to hold it open. This makes it much easier to follow as you work. The only downside to this is that as you look through the first time some of the pages are a little stuck together where the holes for the bindings are. Careful separation is needed to avoid tearing. Once you have been through the book once this is not a problem.

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And since I don't like to post without pictures, some raspberry yarn dip dyed using the method in the book:

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Starting to run out of things to review, will have to get knitting or get myself to a new yarn shop!

Techniques- Dip dyeing, single colour, multiple shades

I recently discovered the fun that is dip dyeing, and having tried to describe the process in words to someone I thought I would share photos of the process with you this week.

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First up prepare your yarn- tie the skein in several places then soak it. It needs to be good and soggy to avoid white patches so be generous with the time you soak it for. Give it an hour or so, it can usually even be left over night- some fibres, like silk, need a lot of soaking.

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Once it is well soaked, lift it carefully out of the water and squeeze it gently to let some of the excess water out.
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Prepare your dye bath with enough water for the yarn to swim around and whichever dye you want to use according to the instructions, as these vary I will not go in to them here. If required by your dye add vinegar to the pot.
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Bring the dye bath to a simmer.

Wrap your soggy yarn around a stick that is longer than the top of your dye bath is wide (or a wooden spoon/fork is good as the flat surface of the spoon stops the stick rolling).

(The cider in the photo is not for drinking while dyeing, it just happened to be in the kitchen when I took the photo).
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Sit the stick across the top of the dye bath and unravel the first section of yarn into the dye. This will be the darkest section, how much you want to unravel is entirely up to you.
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At intervals unwind a little more yarn into the pot. Each section should come out lighter than the previous one. This one was done in four intervals, each two minutes apart, but again that is up to you depending how you want the yarn to look.
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Unless you want a white section to the end of the yarn drop the final length of yarn into the pot and give it a gentle swirl with the stick to get it under the surface. If you leave the last stage too long there will not be much dye left in the pot and it will come out very pale. That might be what you want, but if not don't leave it too long.
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Leave the pot to simmer to set the dye. This should be about fifteen minutes but may depend on the make of dye.
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Take the pot off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Rinse the yarn then squeeze out the excess water and allow to dry (as for handpainting).

Twist into a pretty skein and take artistic photos on the lawn (this stage is optional :D).

Plan what to knit/gift/sell skein.

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Next dyeing adventure should be dipping for multiple colours so watch out for that one.

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I would love to see what you make if you follow this tutorial, please leave a link in the comments to pictures so I can see (why yes, I am nosy! :D).