To Dye For!

I bought a bulk lot of variegated and self striping Patonyle in the Tapestry Craft Christmas sale last year, for the sole purpose of over-dying it and making some funky ‘hand dyed’ sock yarn. Patonyle, you see, has been discontinued by ACS, and finding the ‘natural’ colour is close to impossible. So I do what I can with what I have.

So, I’m dying with food colouring. A very popular choice for people who don’t want to dye with chemicals. Kool Aid and Jelly are two other types, but Kool Aid is too hard to get consistently, and Jelly, apparantly, is very sticky 😀 So my first attempt is with the ‘easiest’ one to use.

First. Here’s my yarn. I’m overdying the pink first, I guess I can over over dye it if it doesn’t work.. (too hard with the black).
	I unwound it into hanks, so it would be easier to make sure that dye had gotten to the whole lot. A little time consuming on the swift, but I will be getting a Niddy Noddy later this year, which will make it easier.
Soaking the yarn in a lukewarm water/vinegar mix with a dash of wool detergent was smelly..
Mixing the dye was strange. I used a 4:1 water:vinegar mix and added a good 15ml of paste food colouring. I used a “true” red and a dash of blue, to give me a rich, deep cherry colour.
Once the yarn had soaked for a good 30 minutes, I squeezed all the water out, and then poured the dye over the yarn. It sucked that colour up like a thirsty dog! I ended up adding a good 1/4 teaspoon more of food colouring so that ALL the yarn was covered.
I put the yarn into a Glad Steam Lock bag, and zapped on high for about 5 minutes, I had to give it a rest at 3 and 4 minutes to release some bag pressure.
Then the rinse! First sink rinse was hotter water, so it wouldn’t shock the newly cooked yarn. I forgot the detergent :S
	But after it al (and a quick 2nd run through) I got the desired effect!Now it’s just got to dry and be re-hanked.