To dye for

So I tried my hand at dying some yarn last weekend. This desire came about when I had purchased some cotton yarn for a project for someone else, but then decided to make them something else. So I had white Sugar 'n' Cream yarn, and periwinkle Sugar 'n' cream yarn. Not exactly my ideal colors. So, I was hoping to use some Kool-Aide on them because it would be easy and cheap, but after some research I discovered that Kool-Aide only works on protein based fibers. So a little more research led me to the conclusion that I wanted permanent fabric dye, not acid dye, and that I could find it at Jo-Ann's.

I ended up with some Dylon in Violet, Bahama Blue, and Rainforest Green. The Violet was to over dye the periwinkle yarn, while the blue and the green were to make a vareigated specimen. I skeined the yarns and tied them at 3 intersections loosely so the dye would be able to work its way in there. That turned out to be not such a good idea, because the yarn was pretty tangled by the end of it (there was a lot of agitation required for the violet dye).

Are you ready for the results?



This is a little less bright that shown in the picture, the white made it reflect a lot which is what I was going for since it was overcast that day, but it was a little much.



This is a pretty accurate representation of the color.

The amazon green on the package looked much brighter, so I was thinking that I would get a more tropical combination, but I like how this turned out. I mixed the dyes in an empty shampoo bottle (I couldn't find any proper squirt bottles at Jo-Ann's), and applied the dye. First the blue, and then the green. I put a little too much on, because there were puddles of dye at the bottom, so the bottom of the blue sections were turning blue-green. So I just covered the blue with the green and got a more muted change, which I ended up liking. The bahama blue was really vibrant at first, but after rinsing it washed out a bit.

Also, I didn't do the best job making sure that the yarn was thoroughly coated with dye in the blue/green one, so there are some light spots.

All in all I think it was a successful first dye attempt.