Well, I had an adventure in dying last weekend. I asked a friend to build me
Scout's Getto Warping Board. He did the wood work and my husband did the cutting and grinding of the metal rod.
Then I had to figure out how to warp the stupid thing. I finally just winged it. Here is my knitpicks bare yarn all "warped up."
Then the dying processes. I don't know if I was quite ready to dye this yarn as soon as I did. I surfed and surfed for tutorials, advice, tips, etc. One main bit of information I was looking for was how much the color creeps along the yarn. Basically, when do I stop painting, leaving bare yarn, but still coloring the whole thing. I never did find the information I was looking for. Finally, after dreaming of dying yarn all night Saturday night and NOT wanting to have the same dreams Sunday night, I took the plunge and dyed!
First I yanked that sucker off the warping board and soaked it in water (with a couple glugs of vinegar for fun) for about two hours.
While it was soaking, I mixed up my Jacquard acid dyes. I had warped this pattern 6 red, 2 black, 4 blue, and 2 more black. I mixed 2 capfuls of vinegar in 1/3 cup hot water and 1/4 tsp of the black and sky blue. For the red I mixed 2 capfuls of vinegar in 1/2 cup hot water and 1/4 tsp + 2 dashes (those cute little measuring spoons of a dash, pinch and smidgen) of vermillion. Then for fun I took a half tsp of the red dye mixture and put that in the blue.
Then I painted. Since I never did find any information on the creep affect (is there a technical term for that) I had to wing it. I started dabbing on my dye from the middle down hoping to get a feel for the creep. I started with red and there wasn't much creeping going on. So I stopped at the end of the loops and hoped the red would creep up to meet the black. Next I painted the blue. I painted it on just as I had the red and noticed that it had a lot more creep to it then the red. Next I painted the black. It actually had LESS creep then the red, so I dabbed on a bit beyond the loops. Then since I didn't see the red creeping as much as I liked, I added a bit more red to the top before the split to black. All that was left for me to do at this point was to shrug my shoulders wrap it up in saran wrap and nuke it. I nuked it for 2 minutes, then rested for 2 minutes, then nuked it for 2 more minutes, then rested 2 minutes, then nuked it for a final 2 more minutes.
Okay so here it is after some cool down time, a good thorough rinsing and popping it back on the warping board.
Now a close up of the creep! That blasted blue JUMPED the black and crept over to the red side.
At first I didn't care. I just wanted it to dry, so I could see what it looked like skeined up. But now I'm wondering what I can do about it. I've waited three days for the yarn to dry. Do I wet it down and try and fix that spot? Oh the agony! Oh the despair! What would happen if I didn't wet it down. What would happen if I just slapped some dye on that one spot? What would happen if I nuke yarn that is dry? Hmm . . . gotta go!
