27 October 2007

Well, what do YOU have in the shower?

dyeing yarn

Today I've dyed yarn for the first time in my life. I've been thinking of doing it for quite a while, but didn't buy the dyeing colors until recently. I wanted to try a method of dyeing in the microwave oven, described in Swedish here and here.

This is what the yarn looked like from the beginning.
dyeing yarn

First I washed the yarn very carefully.
dyeing yarn

And mixed the colors.
dyeing yarn

dyeing yarnI put the yarn (one skein by one) in a container that would fit into the microwave. With the help of spoons I "painted" the yarn on one side, pressed a little with my hands, turned it over to the other side and put some more color on. I had rubber glowes, but it didn't become as wet or messy as I had imagined.

Here's one skein ready to go into the microwave for 3x3 minutes (at full effect):
dyeing yarn
dyeing yarn

When cooled down I rinsed it in water (not hot!) (and a little ättika). I hang it in the shower to dry. It was really fun and easy and I'll definetely do it again. As for the dying colors I only bought red, blue and yellow and then mixed them. They weren't cheap, but as very little is needed I can see they'll last for many, many skeins to come.

I'll show some more photos when they're dry + in daylight.
dyeing yarn

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Åh, wow! Jag har färgat garn fast på mycket mer omständligt sätt, i gryta... Visste inte ens att man kunde köra det i micro! Vilken färg använde du? Och hur färgäkta blir det? (Dvs hur bra håller färgen för tvätt sen?)