Monday, June 4, 2007

Manic Monday

So, what do you do when you should work on Memorial Day, but you don't want to because everyone else has a holiday? You do 7 loads of laundry while dyeing self-striping yarn with KoolAid!

Step-by-step directions for KoolAid dyeing:

1. I used Bare Merino Wool Fingering Weight yarn from Knitpicks. First I used the needles I was going to knit my socks to knit one row with the undyed yarn. Then I measured the length of the piece of yarn that it took to knit that row. (My length was 26 inches.)

2. I decided that I wanted to use three colors and have each color span two rows. So, I placed two dining chairs 156 inches apart and wound all the yarn around them while avoiding feline marauders. The yarn then soaked in luke warm water and a glug (yes, that is an exact quantity!) of vinegar.


3. I then mixed up my three colors of KoolAid. The three jars below contain (from left to right): 4 packets Orange plus 1/2 packet Black Cherry, 4 packets Lemon-Lime plus 1/2 packet Black Cherry, 2 packets Black Cherry.


4. These jars were placed in a big pot that I filled up about halfway with water on the stove (next to my treasured Chantal tea kettle). The yarn was marked off in thirds and each third was placed in a jar. The water was brought to a boil and simmered until the yarn soaked up all the dye.


5. After the yarn cooled, it was rinsed and dried on a wooden rack.

Then I placed the yarn around a couple chairs again and got completely dizzy while winding it all into a ball.


I'm liking the way this yarn looks in the chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.

7 comments:

Brenda said...

Excellent! That is working out so well. Great choice of pattern stitch! You have to watch out for the feline marauders!

Beth said...

Now if only we could find an easy way to complete that last step of winding the newly dry yarn into a ball. Yours is beautiful!

Melinda said...

Hmmm, can't tell that you're a scientist or anything. The socks look lovely.

Laura said...

I love it! It looks fantastic.

Feline marauders!

liz said...

awesome -- thanks for the fabulous protocol :) i'll have to try this sometime after august...

Anonymous said...

spectacular results! and i think i may have to buy that book...

Sourire11 said...

dying is so fun!!! Love the sock you're knitting with your yarn... beautiful!