Dying yarn is a really great way to express your creative side in colour. I have a bunch, and I do mean a bunch, of undyed sock yarn that speaks to me every once in a while.
I had knit some sock blanks a year or so ago that I wanted to paint as gradient cakes. Knitted with double or triple ends, the idea was to produce two or three cakes that were the same. It worked well and this is the end product.
I had a large blank of three ends of sock yarn that was left over undyed.
After dying some merino and silk blend with a mixture of blue and yellow to produce a lovely green, there was a fair bit of dye left in the pot but not enough to dye a whole skein.
I added some extra yellow to soften the green and threw in the blank. It turned out a beautiful avocado tone with slight variations that I really like in kettle dyed yarn. Rinsed and dried, it was time to unravel and separate the three strands into individual cakes. I have done this before by winding one end onto a yarn winder and hand winding the other ends into balls to rewind.
I am a collector of knitting machine stuff and found myself with three winders. I know that seems excessive but I did have six and have given a couple away so don’t feel too badly about the ones remaining. It turned out that having an assortment of winders is the best possible thing for this job.
Although it took a while to unravel the blank, I ended up with three nice cakes and no rewinding a ball into a cake which is a real pain.
Have a lovely week filled with kindness and crafting.
