Mustard Seed Yarn Lab

So in the post previous to this one, you saw what happened when I dyed pepto pink yarn with turmeric.  I liked it better, but didn’t love it. So I finally was able to snag packets of Kool Aid at Walmart (thanks for the tip Mom!) and I used the Grape Kool Aid for the final dye bath. I was a little skeptical at first…Kool Aid doesn’t come across in my mind like a serious dyeing tool….but I must admit, I was impressed with the results!

Above you can see the yarn getting cooked. When I saw how purple it looked in the pot, I was thinking I might end up with some very purple yarn. But nope, here’s what happened:

I’m quite happy with it! This was the best picture I could get today, with the clouds and rain, and (on my computer at least) it’s a pretty accurate picture. It turned into a more adult colored yarn,… less fun, more sophisticated. A mixture of pink, purple, brown and small, dull orange flashes. (Ignore the yellow ties holding it together. I probably should have removed those before taking the picture.)

I’m going to make something with this one. I’ll knit it up and make sure I post it here for you all to see…I know you’re super excited to see what this will turn into and see how the colorway works up! Well fear not! I will not disappoint.

BTW, I went to several garage sales today looking for large pots or crock pots to use with the acid dye, and had no luck. Then I went to Salvation Army and found a crock pot for $20 and a large pot for $10. I think that’s a lot for a used and rusting crock pot and a slightly dirty, used pot, don’t you? I decided I could get a better deal elsewhere and came home with nothing. Sniff.

I’m so excited to try my hand at dyeing that I just couldn’t wait to have all the stuff I need and decided to give it a whirl with what I did have. So I looked at all my skeins to see what one I might want to try changing the color of, and the only one I had that I didn’t like was this:

I won a contest for a free skein of yarn and I wasn’t given any choice of the color they sent me and so I of course ended up with the worst color possible….Pepto Bismol Pink. Yeah, the was a perfect candidate for my first yarn dyeing experience. No matter what color I end up with, I figured it HAD to be better than this.

So next, I looked around the kitchen to see what I could use for a dye. I found tumeric. Mixed with some water it looked like a definite possiblity. It looked like this:

That’s not bad. Better than pink. And I kinda like pink and orange together, so I thought I’d do a variegated colorway, part pink, part orange. I filled a large pot with the tumeric and water, brought it to a boil, then simmered the yarn for over an hour. The yarn is 100% wool and you have to be soooo careful when handling wet wool as it felts super easily. Anyway, after about 2 hours, I had this:

The orange was duller than I had expected, and maybe I should have mixed some vinegar with the mixture to brighten it, as I’ve read it’s something one can do, but I just didn’t feel like having the whole house smell like vinegar, especially since I have a couple of guys working here putting in a new boiler. (They probably thought it was strange enough that I had a pot of boiling yarn on my stove, much less to have a pot of yarn cooking, and a house that reeks of vinegar. ) To get the variegated color, I twisted the yarn back into a skein before I put in into the pot, so the dye could not move freely throughout the yarn. I let it drip dry over the bowl and into the sink for awhile, then hung it over a chair and let it drip on a towel. This morning, we have this:

Not bad, but not great. I decided yesterday that I liked it better but didn’t love it yet, and I decided to try some purple KoolAid to see if I could get a more interesting colorway. I dragged Emmet to the grocery store only to find that they didn’t carry the packets of KoolAid, only large containers of it. A large container would just go to waste in my house as we don’t drink KoolAid, so I came home disappointed. I’m still going to try it. I think I will go on another KoolAid packet quest later on. And in the meantime, I must figure out what acid dye to buy and where to get it from and I need to order some skeins of undyed yarn. I’ll make sure to post what happens when we dunk that thing in some purple.

Ok, the picture has nothing to do with anything, but this was us applepicking this weekend.

And here is the picture of Evan in his new hat, as promised.

So anyways, I’m getting really excited about a new endeavor. I’ve decided to dye yarn! I’ve taken out some books from the library and ordered one from Amazon. I’m taking notes and watching videos and after searching some garage sales this weekend for some equipment I’m going to need, I’m going to give it a try. My sister and I even signed up for a class in November. I’ll get some practice in and see how I do, and then, if all goes well, I’m going to try to start my own Etsy shop to sell it. I soooo want to do this successfully. It would be a dream come true. Are you all excited with me?