Prefolds, part deux.

Here's the pics of the prefolds I dyed! I love how they came out! They were all regular size unbleached indians, and I did two prefolds per package of Dylon. I ended up with 4 each in turquoise, burnt orange and lime green. I did two each in poppy red, yellow, olive, and green. I also had a plain lap tee that I dyed turquoise, no pic though.

All the colors... Green, olive and yellow I dyed in bags, the rest I did in tubs. Didn't stir them much though, so they're a bit mottled too. Not bad though, I like that look.


And a couple action pics of the lime and the burnt orange.

More Dyeing fun!

I've been meaning to do this for months now, and finally got to it today! Not wool this time, but Kaiden's prefolds! These are all regular size unbleached Indian prefolds, dyed with Dylon. I did two prefolds per pack of dye, and the colors came out great. The turquise, poppy red, lime green, and burnt orange I did in tubs, while the green, olive and yellow I did in large Ziploc bags. The ones I dyed in Ziplocs came out mottled, but I really like the looks of them.

Who says prefolds have to be boring? Currently, they're in the dryer, so pics of them completed and dried will come tomorrow. Eventually I'd like to stencil them, but for now it's a nice change! To tide you over, here's a pic of most of them soaking. Kudos to Erin for the Ziploc bag idea!

Dyeing for a Crock-Pot!

I finally dyed some "mini-skeins" of yarn to match my last dye project. I took a skein of Patons merino and split it in half so I'd have two smaller skeins (just under 2oz each). I decided to use the crock pot to dye them, since I wouldn't have to worry about checking on the yarn constantly while taking care of Kaiden.

My first step was to soak the yarn in water and vinegar for a while, about half an hour. While that was soaking, I prepared the pink dye. I put water and 1/2 c of vinegar in the crock pot, and set it to low. In a separate container, I mixed a little vinegar, two tablets of easter egg dye, and some hot water. After the tablets were dissolved, I dumped this in the crock pot and mixed it all together. Next step was to add the yarn to the crock pot, and turn it up to high. As the yarn "cooked", the color saturated the yarn, and after only an hour, the dye was exhausted, and it was done! The yarn will be saturated, while the water will now be clear.

At this point I turned off the crock pot and let the yarn cool. Once it's cooled down, I rinsed it with warm water, spun it out in the washer, and hung it to dry. After drying, I put it in a hank. I love all the subtle variations in the color, and it matches the original skein wonderfully!

Next up was the blue skein. While I really wanted the darker "crushed blueberry" color in the main skein, I didn't have enough tablets to experiment, and couldn't remember how I originally created it. Instead, I went with the other blue in the skein. I repeated the same process of soaking the yarn, mixing the dye, cooking the yarn, then letting it cool off, rinsing it, and hanging it to dry. Once it was dry, I wound it into a hank. It also has great variations in color, and matches well.

Here they are all together!

Sweet Tarts and Blueberries...

After Easter, I bought a bunch of egg dye with the intention of dyeing some wool yarn. Friday night I finally got around to dyeing my two skeins of natural Patons Merino. The intention was to make a pair of shorts out of each skein, but the end result of one skein is too girly for Kaiden. I think I have a plan for it though. ;)

This first skein is "Sweet Tarts". I asked my baby brother and sister what to name them, and they came up with "Pickle Pumpkin", Mom and Nate came up with the final names for these skeins.

The first step was to soak the yarn in water and vinegar. I soaked it for about an hour, then squeezed out the excess liquid, and laid it out on top of plastic wrap. After mixing the egg dye, I painted it on with a sponge brush, then wrapped it up in the plastic wrap. To set the color, I used the microwave. Cook for two minutes, let cool for a couple minutes, repeat for a total cooking time of 10 minutes. After it cooled down completely, I spun it out (on gentle, of course!) in the washer, and hung it to dry. Saturday afternoon, when it was all dry, I reskeined it.

Pretty, no? Unfortunately, way too girly for Kaiden to wear!

Here it is in a center pull ball, and a swatch I knit up to see how the colors blend.


Next up is Blueberry Fields. Nate said he wanted something blue and green, so here it is! The bright blue and neon green are original egg dye tablets. The darker shades are ones I mixed out of various colors.

For this one, I followed the same steps as above. Here it is after painting and hanging to dry. Saturday it was all dry, so I reskeined it as well, then put it into a center pull ball and knit a swatch as well. This will become a pair of cargo shorts for Kaiden, though I'm not sure what color I'll use for trim yet. I love how the colors came out though, and I can't wait to see a FO from this yarn! Here it is in the skein, before I rewound it into a CPB.