periwinkle spiral cobalt grid aqua wave magenta circle blue line

February 4, 2013

over-dyed yarns

At a garage sale this past summer, I got some wool yarns that were various ugly shades.  I spent some time over-dying them to make them more usable.  I used Wilton's cake coloring and McCormick food coloring.

Here they are right after the microwave steaming:



Here they are dried and ready to be wound into balls.  The colors are much more subtle than I am used to due to the underlying original colors.  The orange and green were not over-dyed but were natural color amd for particular projects.  I am thinking that the subdued colors will make great scarves or felted bowls, or a knitted backdrop for an art piece.



and here is a view of my hand with lines, able to be seen because of the dyes... it eventually washes out.


I still have lots more to play with and dye.  One batch of four skeins turned out to be acrylic, but I will donate those so someone else can use them.  I want to try using Easter Egg dyes next.