Thursday, July 13, 2017

Lucky Dyes Yarn for the First Time!


Dear Future Rebecca, when you are space dyeing and the colors aren't binding fast enough, ADD MORE VINEGAR!  Thanks, Past Rebecca.


Lucky really likes playing "ChemKnits Video".  He also really loves to do "projects" with mommy.  These projects vary from creative Pinterest activities to kits we buy at the craft store for $1.  I thought it would be fun to make a "real" video with Lucky and let him dye his very own yarn.  We would then use this yarn to make his hat for next winter.  Sounds fun, right?


Lucky requested to use "alley of the colors" on his yarn.  We used all 9 tablets from the Deluxe PAAS Easter Egg Dyeing Kit.   I wanted to space dye the yarn because Lucky would be able to drop the tablets into the pot with minimal yes but a lot of fun.


I did this video right after my last space dyeing video, inserting Easter egg dye tablets into a pre-wound cake of yarn.  If you look at my blog post for the video, I also started that post with a reminder to add more vinegar.  I think that in both cases I erred on the side of less vinegar to let the colors spread more, but in this case the colors spread much further than I wanted.  The yarn Lucky created is STUNNING, but it isn't the rainbow/all of the colors yarn that he hoped to make.  (Not that Lucky is disappointed or knows the difference, I'm the one that is disappointed!)  The final colorway seems very sophisticated for a 3 year old, so maybe it will turn into something for his Daddy.

Since I was trying to get the yarn ready to show Lucky ASAP, I was not as careful with this 100% wool NON superwash yarn as I normally am.  (The yarn was still hot when I was rinsing it.) The result is that the yarn is a little "sticky" to each other.  It is still not felted and easily separates, but it isn't 100% unaltered either.  (I can untwist a skein of yarn so the fibers are still ordered, and definitely unfelted and knitable, but it is worth pointing out.)

The whole time I was editing this video, I kept thinking, "I should have added more vinegar!"  I didn't want to add too much vinegar because I wanted to allow the colors to spread out, but by not adding enough the colors spread out way too much!  Make sure you check out the whole video.  There are a lot of fun 3 year old extra bits thrown in, too.



Even with similar amounts of vinegar, look at the difference between the two colorways!  These yarns were dyed with the exact same color tablets.  The yarn bases are slightly different, but these examples show that you can get a lot of variation out of an Easter Egg Dyeing kit!  



We will need to try again to get the rainbow.  It looks like these Easter egg tablets "want" more vinegar than other food coloring that I use.  There are some choices for the future.  Add a lot more vinegar to start with (I'd start with 4T next time versus the 2T I used here), or start with a low amount of vinegar, allow the colors to spread and then pour in a splash of vinegar later on.

The reactions to Lucky's video have been very positive.  Some of you prefer non-toddler dyeing videos, and I still plan to do a lot of videos without a 3 year old's help.  I think that it is fun to show what a pre-schooler can do to help with dyeing yarn, and how it can be a fun activity.  Maybe I should try to teach Lucky to spin next.  What do you think?  Have you done any fiber crafts with your children?  At what age did they start?


I took pictures as the colors spread out.  Check out the awesome progression!  I think sometime I'll add a big splash of vinegar around the third picture.


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