Yesterday, the sun was shining and the weather was absolutely perfect, so that means a full day of yarn dyeing! Here’s a little peek into how its done.
Step 1: Select your base yarn. In this case we chose two 50 gram skeins of a 90% merino wool, 10% nylon blend. Very soft and squishy.
Step 2: Soak the yarn in a mix of warm water, synthrapol, and ammonium sulfate for at least 30 minutes. The yarn needs to be wet completely through in order to pick up the dye evenly. The synthrapol helps the yarn to absorb the water more completely. If you don’t have synthrapol, Joy dish soap works too. The ammonium sulfate is the acid that reacts with the dyes to bind them to the fiber. Regular household vinegar does the same thing, though you need a LOT more of it and your yarn and studio may smell like pickles as you work! 
Step 3: While the yarn is soaking, gather your dyes and decide on the colors. For Cheryl and me this is sometimes a very creative and loose process. We may take a yellow, blue and a red and just play with them and mix as we go, being surprised by the result. Other times, we try to be a little more controlled and mix exact ratios of red, yellow and blue to make specific shades. This involves math, which makes my head spin, but Cheryl is a chemist by training, so she makes it look easy.
Step 4: Arrange your work space with your selected dyes. Dyeing can get kind of messy so it’s important to keep yourself as organized as possible. Spilling is not good!
Step 5: Now lay out a piece of plastic wrap and place your pre-soaked yarn on the work surface. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the yarn before putting it on the plastic wrap.
Step 6: Now the fun begins. Start painting the dye onto your yarn. In this example I am using a one inch foam brush, but you could also use a plastic spoon, a squirt bottle, or just dip the yarn right in the dye. For this skein, I am making a variegated mix of purples, lavender and pale pinks. I try to keep the color sections short. This helps to avoid pooling when you knit the yarn.
Step 7: Continue painting each color onto the skeins. In this case, there are two skeins of yarn needed to make one pair of socks, so I tried to match the color sections and placement on each skein. Of course, they don’t match exactly, but a little imperfection is always a good thing, right?
Also, not shown, but very important, look at the underside of your skein and ensure that your dye is soaking all the way through. You may have to flip the skein as you work.
Step 8: When you are finished painting, carefully wrap each skein up in its own piece of plastic wrap. Once they are wrapped, they will get “cooked”.
Step 9: Place the wrapped skeins into a steamer. Some people measure the exact temperature of the boiling water, but I just ensure that it is boiling and leave it at that. Let the skeins steam for 30 – 45 minutes. And please don’t use any pots or pans or kitchen utensils that are also used for food preparation. For safety, PLEASE keep your dyeing supplies separate.
Step 10: In all my excitement of dyeing, I forget to take pictures of the last few steps, but it is really simple. Remove your yarn from the steamer, with tongs or a glove, remember it is hot! Let the wrapped skeins cool to room temperature. (Cheryl will tell you that I am very bad at that, I like to see my creations right away…) Unwrap your skeins and rinse them well with room temperature water, making sure that you rinse out any excess dyes. Give your skein a good squeeze and then hang to dry.
Step 11: When your yarn is fully dry, twist it up into a pretty little skein and admire it!
More info on supplies and such:
Base yarns, dyes and dyeing supplies are available all over the innernets. Webs and KnitPicks both sell undyed yarns. KnitPicks has a good selection jacquard acid dyes in all sorts of colors, that will work with wool and wool blends. ProChem is a local supplier here in Bristol County with excellent products, classes, and super technical service. You might even try dyeing with Kool-Aid. Whatever method you choose, do your research, be safe, and above all, Have Fun!
