In Dyepot Weekly #68, I used two balls of yarn to create a crochet chain of crochet chains. I divided my 100 g skein bare KnitPicks Wool of the Andes worsted weight yarn (Affiliate link) in two 50 balls of yarn and then crocheted two strands with a K hook into a long chain. I wound this chain into a center pull ball, and used both ends of the ball with a size N hook (9.0 mm) to create a much thicker crochet chain of crochet chains.
In the video, I decided to fold the chain up and paint it so we could get a self striping pattern. All of the stripes won't be perfectly even, but the two 50 g skeins are perfectly matched to be used together or separately.
In the video, I decided to fold the chain up and paint it so we could get a self striping pattern. All of the stripes won't be perfectly even, but the two 50 g skeins are perfectly matched to be used together or separately.
I just love how the yarn looks on the niddy noddy!
In Dyepot Weekly #58, I did a similar technique to make my crochet chains, but I started with fingering weight yarn and some thicker hooks. First, I separated 100 g of KnitPicks bare stroll fingering weight yarn (Affiliate Link) into two 50 g balls. I used the size N (9.0 mm) hook to make a super loose chain of the fingering weight yarn. My chains got looser and looser as I went on, almost like I was n-plying vs crocheting. Just like in the previous one, I used a larger hook (jumbo in this case) to crochet the two ends of this crochet chain together.
In Dyepot Weekly #58, I did a similar technique to make my crochet chains, but I started with fingering weight yarn and some thicker hooks. First, I separated 100 g of KnitPicks bare stroll fingering weight yarn (Affiliate Link) into two 50 g balls. I used the size N (9.0 mm) hook to make a super loose chain of the fingering weight yarn. My chains got looser and looser as I went on, almost like I was n-plying vs crocheting. Just like in the previous one, I used a larger hook (jumbo in this case) to crochet the two ends of this crochet chain together.
Finally, I took the two ends of this chain and held them together to create one LARGE crochet chain. This time I used my hands instead of a hook, just like if I were to crochet some roving. This gave us a piece of yarn that we could dye to get some kind of repeating pattern.
I decided to dip this braid into some Wilton's Violet food coloring to see how the colors might break. The result is a speckled gradient that goes from purple to a pale blue. Since the yarn was folded over on itself multiple times, this is a bit of a repeating gradient.
I was a bit disappointed that the breaking wasn't as extreme as we see sometimes, but I think that I forgot that we had a LOT less surface area here, so the reds were able to bind to more of the yarn. Nevertheless, the final result is STUNNING and I think that I would try it again sometime.
I plan to do some more traditional self striping techniques in the future, but I thought it would be fun to try out another type of blank. The benefit of these crochet chains is that anyone can create one pretty easily. You can get a self striping pattern easier with a long and skinny chain than you could with a wider blank. There is a lot of manual work involved, but I prepped all of this yarn in an evening while watching some TV.
I look forward to playing with some more traditional self striping techniques, including multiple miniskeins and some VERY long skeins of yarn. I haven't started prepping for these videos yet, but they are certainly high up on my list!