Dyeing with Wilton

 I finally got my husband to confess what the look on his face was already telling me; he didn't like the Koolaid dye.  It lost something when knit in with the brown yarn into the bag.  The top stripe was fine, but the shamrock was getting lost.  He didn't want to be picky but I invited him to be.  (I reminded him just how excited I am to *finally* knit something for him.)

He finally pulled out a circuit board and said that's the color he's looking for.


So that night I took my stuff to my guild night and asked the ladies what they thought.  I could either buy the yarn (the shop didn't have my requirements in stock) or I could try Wilton dying.  I decided to do that.  So I did some research online and found some info.


This site has marvelous info on various kinds of dyeing: http://www.dyeyouryarn.com/wilton-general.html
These are the directions I followed (for the most part) and I am SO inspired by her gorgeous roving and yarn!  I will need to play with her technique some more.   http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/wiltons-icing-gel-dying-tutorial.html


I bought three colors of Wilton icing dye at Michael's Craft store this afternoon; Kelly Green, Moss Green, and Juniper Green.  The Juniper label looked like what I wanted but I wasn't 100% sure how it would translate on yarn so I grabbed the three to play with.  They were about $2.45 a piece (1 oz.) and I had a 40% off coupon.


I got out some mason jars; pints for my mix jars and quarts for my cooking jars.  I mixed them up according the [the second website above]'s directions with vinegar and water.  Then I poured about half into jar and added a cup of warm water.  I dropped in a mini skein (tied at two points) of 10 yards into each jar and stirred it slightly.  Then I lined them up and they jars took turns nuking in the microwave for two minutes.  I think each jar when through three times but I was distracted by my kids.   Anyway, the water became see through.  The last little bit didn't get absorbed as I had overloaded the water.  That's okay.

I let them cool and later pulled them out with tongs and tossed them into a colander and rinsed.  (I wasn't sure if they'd leak on me.  Turns out they were fine, but I didn't want green fingers.)  I squeezed out the excess water and hung them up to dry.

When I check on them later I could see the final color (dry fiber will sometimes look different than when wet.)  They were close, but I decided to play with the fourth mini skein I had set aside.  I mixed a quarter cup of each the Kelly and Moss greens together in a mason jar and added the cup of water and yarn.  I really like how this one came out.  I think its the computer-board green he's wanting.  We'll see when it's completely dry!

Furthermore, I also finally set some alpaca yarn that I finished spinning a few weeks ago.  It is what I was spinning at World Wide Knit in Public Day.  That was my final batt I was working on from that fiber.  It was the very first fiber I processed raw from the animal and I am so excited that it is finally done!  Most of it I spun on my drop spindle  Only two of these skeins where spun on my wheel and the other was plied on my wheel. 


I'm a bit embarrassed that one of the skeins got messed up but this is real life and it's not always pretty.  Somehow there was only one single tie on it when I usually do four!  I didn't realize it until I was hanging it up.  I will probably re-skein it after it is dry and re-set it again.