Dying to Try...

Ever since Rae Lynne started dying yarn and sharing her results, I have been so intregued.  I shyed away from dying for a long time.  Between sewing and knitting and baby prep stuff (oh, and my husband!) I just didn't feel I had the time to commit to trying dying.  But I so wanted to!

I read lots of posts on the What a Kool Way to Dye group forum on ravelry.  Using food safe dyes was definitely what I was interested in.  No extra pots to buy, no toxic acid dyes, etc., etc.

I started accumulating some bare yarn, including Cascade 220 Superwash that I could use for my first attempt at dying (without fear of felting the yarn).

I read lots more posts, and still didn't quite feel comfortable with what I was doing, but eventually, I just had to go for it.  With my husband still away, this weekend seemed like the perfect time to give dying a try.

I dyed with two projects in mind and was quite successful.  I'm going to share my half the yarn I dyed today and half tomorrow.

I loved Rae Lynne's dyed yarn, but I also loved her completed project.  I loved the way her Squishies knit up in stripes and decided to make some yarn for my own set of Squishies.

I have a thing for brown and lately I'd really been waiting some brown and turquois yarn.  That was the jumping off point for my first bit of yarn.  Keep in mind that I took one skein of Cascade 220 Superwash (white) and split it into 3 mini skeins.  They aren't equal skeins either, since the squishies come in several sizes.

With the brown and turquoise colour combo I decided to dye two other brown combinations.  I chose purple and later, an apple green.  Immediately after I dyed the brown and purple yarn, I started regretting it.  Brown and purple.. I scolded myself... who wants something that is brown and purple... they are almost the same colour!  BUT I ended up loving the results of this skein.

For the Squishies yarn I used the dip dye method.  I had two mason jars, one of each colour, with half of the skein of yarn in each jar.  I left a little yarn bare in the middle, I like way little bits of white play with the colours.

My brown was made with Kelly Green and No-Taste Red Wiltons food dye. It is important to use No-Taste Red since other reds may break and will cause unpredictable results (more on my experience with that soon!).  I was quite happy with the brown I achieved.  The turquoise used Teal and Royal Blue Wiltons and the purple used No-Taste Red and Royal Blue.  The apple green used Royal Blue and Golden Yellow.

I had fun mixing up the colours and testing them with a bit of paper towel.  I think this method works well and was never really surprised with my outcome.  It's not exact, but it's close...

Okay, enough chatter, here are the photos! (a note about the photos, Alain has the good camera with him, I have an old kodak easyshare.  I wish these photos were clearer, but, C'est la vie!  The colour is pretty true.)