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.
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