For the past week, I've been experimenting with dying yarn in the microwave. It is very simple to dye wool yarn or wool roving using food dyes. You can use cake/icing dyes or food coloring or even Kool-aid packets. I like to use Wilton gel dyes (meant for cake decorating), because a small amount of gel goes a long way.
First I soaked the yarn in a mixture of vinegar and water. The vinegar acts as a mordant and helps the dye bind to the wool. I used a microwave-safe ceramic dish with a cover to hold the yarn and vinegar-water bath. Next, I prepared the gel dyes by mixing them with water in small pyrex cups. For these examples, I mixed up 2 or 3 different shades for each skein. The yellow-orange yarn was made with lemon yellow, golden-yellow, and orange. The bluish yarn was made with royal blue and violet. The lime yarn was made with lemon yellow and leaf green. The darker green yarn was made with teal and leaf green.
I sprinkled the dye on the yarn somewhat haphazardly to give the yarns a variegated look. I covered the dish and microwaved the yarn for around 5-7 minutes until the water bath was clear (meaning that the dye had absorbed into the wool). Then I rinsed the yarn in cool water to get rid of the vinegar smell and hung it to dry. You can also dye larger amounts of yarn on the stove with this basic method, but you have to be careful not to agitate the yarn too much or it can start to felt together. The pink thing in the photo is a hyperbolic crocheted plane made from non-dyed store-bought wool.
4 comments:
WOW! I did not know that. What color was the yarn you started with and did u have to unravel the whole yarn to dye it? I like how you mixed the dye colors and I'm surprised with the brilliance in the colors. Very cool! I'm assuming these are going to be used for your coral reef?
I started with a skein of Ultra Alpaca (50/50 alpaca and wool, about 215 yards) in a natural shade of creamy white. I divided the skein into 4 smaller pieces measuring 40 to 60 yards each. Yep, it required a lot of unraveling and I had to work out some tangles during the process. These pieces were very loosely wound into skeins to fit inside my dish. I do plan to use them on the coral reef project :)
The gel dyes are really brilliant in tone and are basically permanent. Like other dyes, they can fade somewhat if exposed to too much sunlight. Also, it can sometimes be difficult to get true red and purple shades, at least in my experience. The red tones don't seem to bind as well to the wool and sometimes run, unlike the other colors. To get a more muted effect, you could start with a gray or heathered yarn. If you decide to try this sometime, you can get the Wilton dyes at Bulk Barn.
That's so pretty! I really like your colors, and the variegated effect looks cool!
these are beautiful, i love how vivid the colors are, and i also love the variegated effect... really nice. can't wait to see them in coral form too!
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