Dyeing sock yarn, making flip-flop socks, eclipse pictures, and needle felting.

So, what have I been up to this past month? Playing in the dye pots! I'm really getting a kick out of creating variegated yarn by dyeing it in my crock pot. I love what is coming out of it so far.

I had a request for flip-flop socks, so I've been teaching myself how to do those on the sock knitting machine. They are a bit fiddly, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm part of a circular sock knitting group on Facebook, and there were instructions for these in the files. So far, so good.

I had a great time getting these shots of the lunar eclipse. My husband Eric got up early, I stayed up late, and we made a drive out to our favorite spot in the White Tank Mountain regional park west of Phoenix to stalk the super blue blood moon. I'm quite pleased with the results.

And speaking of pleased with the results, I tried my hand at two dimensional needle felting, using some 8x10" wool prefelts for a base to work from. The first picture was me just doodling over the course of an evening, trying out layering different colors in an abstract piece to get a feel for the materials. The second was my attempt at fiber figure drawing, using just black and white wool felted over a medium grey piece of wool prefelt. I am loving the results!! I am definitely going to be pursuing this medium for my art. I dyed many of the colors in the top piece, by putting a length of white roving in with my sock yarn when I dye it. So, this combines my dyeing, my felting, my drawing, and hopefully in the future my photography. I'd like to take pictures, and use them as reference photos for my fiber painting.

I am really really excited by the possibilities here!

Tutorial: Self striping sock yarn

Now, I am not an expert. But I hand dyed some self striping sock yarn, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

So, I figured I'd share what I did with you all.

Materials:
Wool yarn. I used superwash sock yarn, which is less likely to felt.
Jacquard acid dyes
vinegar
water
cotton crochet thread for ties
Dawn dish soap for washing afterwards

Tools:
saran wrap
squirt bottles
measuring spoon
gloves
dust mask
warping mill (or something to measure out your yarn)
swift (Or someone to hold the hank of yarn out for you in their hands.)
ball winder (Optional. You can ball up the yarn by hand.)
scissors
steamer
tub for soaking

Note: Do not use any of the items used for dyeing for food preparation ever again.

So, the first thing I did was to wind the hank of yarn from the swift onto my warping mill. I figured that 5 yards on the mill would give me about a 10 yard repeat (as the yarn goes back and forth from end to end.) My calculations were that that length would give me about an inch pattern repeat in my socks. You'll have to swatch for your own tension and row size to get your own figures.

 I tied loose figure 8 ties every yard, from some cotton crochet thread. That helps keep things from tangling, and the cotton doesn't dye so I can find it easily later on. Don't tie these too tight, or they will block the dye from getting through to the yarn.

 I also used loose ties around each arm of the figure 8 crosses at the ends of the warping mill. This again keeps things in order, and makes it easier to replace the yarn back onto the mill when the dyeing process is done.

 Then I chained the yarn up as I took it off the warping mill. No tangles!

 I soaked the chained up yarn in a tub of water and vinegar for half an hour. I had about a cup of vinegar in here. This provides the acid for the acid dyes to bond to the fiber.

 While the yarn was soaking, I put down a layer of cling wrap onto my work surface.

 Then, I chose my colors. My client wanted green, yellow, orange, and pink, as bright as possible.

 At this point, I put on my dust mask and gloves. Then I put about a half tsp of dye into each squirt bottle, and mixed it with warm water. Once the dye powders were closed up and put back away, and my area cleaned up, I could take the dust mask back off. I don't want airborne particles in my lungs!!

 I squeezed the water gently out of my yarn, and laid it out onto my work surface.

 Then, I had fun with the squeeze bottles! I used my gloved fingers to squish the dye down into the yarn, to make sure it got all of the way through. A bit of color theory helped here. I wanted bright colors, and I know that colors across the color wheel from each other combine to make earth tones. So, I kept the green and pink/orange far away from each other.

 After dyeing, I covered everything with another layer of saran wrap.

 Then, I rolled the bundle up.

 I curled the long bundle around itself, and put it in my steamer. I steamed the packet of yarn for an hour, then let it cool overnight. The next morning, I rinsed the yarn in the sink with first a squirt of dish soap, and then plain water to rinse the soap out. You are looking to rinse until the water runs clear. It didn't take long at all this time. Then, I hung the yarn up to air dry. (I forgot to take pictures of the rinsing and drying process.)

Once the yarn was dry, I put it back onto the warping mill, and used my automatic ball winder to put the yarn into a useable form.

 All ready to go!

It worked!!! I cranked out a pair of socks on my 100 year old sock knitting machine, and just danced in my seat the whole time. I am really, really pleased with how it turned out!

Yarn review: Franklin sock yarn

Well, that didn't work as well as I hoped. I was experimenting with Franklin sock yarn from Webs. It dyed up beautifully! But it is a little thick for my antique knitting machine. And, when I got a sock made up, it felt kind of dry and crunchy to the touch. I think this sock yarn is a little coarse for my sock making needs.

Come to think of it though, I think this yarn will be beautiful for making coiled basketry, where the feel against the skin won't matter as much. It seems nice and sturdy, and should hold up nicely for that use. (This picture is from a different brand of yarn, but you get the idea.)

Yup. Need to keep experimenting!

Crock pot dyeing sock yarn.

So, time to learn something new to me! I've been making socks with my antique sock knitting machine, and that led me to itching to want to dye my own sock yarn. I went hunting around the internet, and found a couple of inspirations. This blog entry (https://yarndesignersblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/no-mess-crock-pot-yarn-dyeing/) and this video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv25WIVdOik) both used a similar technique of sprinkling dry dye powder on hanks of yarn in the crock pot. That looked like a great way to get my feet wet (so to speak). I decided to go with Jacquard acid dyes for their light fastness and color selection, and made myself an order from Dharma Trading Company.

I went ahead and got a rainbow of colors, plus brown, black and gray. And, I decided to go with the citric acid crystals rather than just using vinegar, so my project wouldn't smell up my house. Then, I had to figure what yarn to use. My antique knitting machine really works well with the Serenity sock yarn from JoAnns, so I picked up some white skeins to start with. I have an antique clock reel that I rescued from a second hand store (it had been turned into a plastic flower planter, poor thing!), and used that to turn two skeins of yarn into one hank of yarn. Each skein is enough for one sock, and this way I could get matching socks from a dyed hank. Though, come to think of it, it might be fun to dye related but slightly different hanks, for the non-matching fraternal sock craze that is going on. Hmmm.....

Then, more or less following the directions on the two sites, I got to playing in the color. I have three hanks of yarn in the crock pot tonight. The bottom skein started white, and used the figure 8 way of putting the yarn in the crock pot. (Twist the big loop once, so it looks like an 8, and then fold the two loops over onto themselves. Put that in the crock pot.) The second hank is also done in the figure 8 way of laying out the yarn, but it started purple. I wanted to see what it looked like to overdye another color. The top hank is just scrunched in one big circle, and started white. I've used purple, fire red, and brilliant blue dye colors, in approximately equal proportions around the ring.

So...now it simmers over night. I put on high for the first hour, and then popped it down to low until I wake up tomorrow. I'm finding the biggest challenge so far is Not Messing With It. I want to poke at it, and that will just disturb the water and muddy the colors. But....I want to play!!!

Hands off.

Go to sleep.

Dream of color.