Music: Herbie Hancock – You Bet Your Love
Mood: Neko (=^･ｪ･^=)
It is March.
That is all that needs to be said, really. For it is spring, and the riotous blooms of color both indoor and out are indeed riotous. So this month, and during the rest of the year, let us enjoy them. In one way or the other.
That might be considered the thesis of this post, or at least the tl;dr summary. I have been busy these weeks, not only in class but also in crafting. I found joy again, despite my months of trying to be joyful, and I have color to thank for it.
What kind of color? Why, yarn color, of course! Behold!
For those who have been following my Twitter (and shame on you who do not…shame), I have been posting pics of these gorgeous babies for a while now. I have been experimenting with hand-painting on yarn, you see.
I think this entire thing started by Telegram. A certain yarn crafting group posted a sale link to Dyer Supplier back in February. After getting a pack of superwash 80/20 merino/nylon sock yarn, I was looking for ways to dye the batch. After much googling, I found A) how to hand-paint yarn and B) that the thing can be baked.
Yes, you are reading that right! Baking the yarn in the dye bath is a perfect thing to do for small spaces. As long as you keep your dye tools apart from your kitchen tools, that is. But right now, I am using concentrated icing dye colors, so I’m good. Really I am. What’s that funny look for? It’s okay!
So, for the first skein, I doused the yarn in 50/50 solution of white vinegar and tap water, let it soak for about 20 minutes, and drained off to reuse as dye base. No measurements here, I was playing it by ear. I just added enough dye to make it look pretty. And then I took the entire thing and baked it at 350F for 35-ish minutes.
Got a tad scalded when I removed the foil. I blame the steam.
Anywho, the dye bath was completely exhausted, and I really liked that. The yarn took the color up quickly and efficiently, which was what I was looking for. During washing, the color bled out *very* faintly, a bonus. I liked the procedure so much that I decided to make a bulk set.
Got this cookery from a local restaurant supply store, and as you can see, it helped out a lot. That’s three skeins of yarn, doused in dunno how much water with four teaspoons of citric acid dissolved. I took a teaspoon of icing color and dissolved it in a pint of water. Then I slowly poured it over the yarn to prevent any excessive blending. However, as you can see, it blended anyway. [shrug] Baked it again in 350F for 30-ish minutes and let it cool for another half hour before taking off the lid. To prevent more scalding.
As you can see, the dye bath is almost exhausted, and that is A-OK. Another success!
My main point of all of this is to produce enough yarn for an upcoming booth at our local market days. Although it has been mostly closed due to Covid-19, there are rumblings of opening in the coming months, and I want to set up shop there for the local yarn buyers. As some of you may know, it has been a dream of mine to open a small yarn store here in the area, and if this helps me put a foot in the door, so be it. 😀
But first, I need to practice. And if the practicing makes amazing results, they will be given names and sold. Like this colorway, working title is “Ocean Blvd.” I like the way of it, but if I find a worthier title, I’ll use it.
