The experimenting bug has hit me so, with some hand-holding and knowledge from members of the Rose Hip Knits podcast Ravelry group, I’ve hand dyed yarn for the first time.

 

Along with chatting with people who have dyed before, being given samples of acid dyes to try out, watching YouTube videos, reading a dyeing book and articles (such as Space Dyed Yarn Tutorial from Dharma Trading Co.), I took the attitude that if it doesn’t work out then at least I know what doesn’t work :)

I gave new life to old household equipment by allocating them to my dyeing tools. I decided to start small by making mini skeins from three different yarn bases, shown clockwise in each of the above photos:

• Patons Family 5 ply pure new wool (I was given this one at some point and it looked like a vintage yarn ball)
• Spotlight’s Moda Vera 8 ply wool (probably superwash)
• Bendigo Woollen Mills 4 ply fingering 75% wool/25% nylon

For the dyeing, I made up small quantities of Dharma acid dyes from the colours:

• Flamingo Pink
• Sand Dune
• Amethyst

I used the dyes to hand paint each skein in a slightly different way – I didn’t know what would happen but I took my time applying a little dye here, then a little dye there, before packaging them up and steaming them in a pot for an hour.

The Moda Vera 8 ply wool took in the least colour – I expected the wool/nylon blend to be the lightest but I was happily surprised.

I like how the mini skeins turned out, each so different but similar, and I’m looking forward to adding them to my sock yarn blanket to see how they knit up.