Monday, January 12, 2009

any idea??

It is supposed to be straightforward but for some reason I keep getting it all wrong. Disastrously wrong. A few weeks ago I learnt to dye wool thinking of the wonderful potential for the vibrant colours I just could not find. I tried some painting on with the dye - and it was nice but not bitey enough for what I was after.

I am in the orange swap on ravelry aussie swappers group and really wanted to dye some wool as my gift. How nice it would be to receive hand dyed yarn. I know I would think it glorious.
I thought I would try the other method of using the stove. I used an old baking dish. At the time I thought it might not be the best idea but was lazy enough to try.


It looks nice but I ended up with black marks all over my yarn.


I went and found my old paper-making stainless steel pot in the shed and started again. I put the black marked yarn in with a new skein thinking I could do two at once, and who knows the black spots might recede. Now I have two yarns with black spots. Maybe the black from the first had tainted the second - it was probably iron or something ( I am no chemist). I just don't know.

I ordered more undyed yarn online. Knittery have a two week wait. That is getting a bit tight for my swap deadline.

In the knitting basket I spotted the first one I had dyed by painting and thought I would redo that one to make it more vivid and orange. I used the stainless pot and set to work.

black spots.

Now I really, really have no idea what is happening and am a little scared to destroy more yarn.

any ideas? Anyone? Anyone at all?

9 comments:

Rose Red said...

wish I could help but I know nothing about dying yarn!! have you asked the almighty Ravelry?

(PS - I love the idea of giving hand-dyed yarn - that's excellent! I'm in the orange swap too and it is really hard to find good orange yarn!)

(PPS - If I'm your swap pal, I don't mind yarn with black flecks! You can call it orange tweed!!) Heh!

Sarah said...

Oh dear - how odd - I've no helpful advice whatsoever but am sending good orange creating vibes your way

Bells said...

I have no idea either, but RoseRed cracks me up.

Anonymous said...

White Oil? ;o) Sorry. Couldn't resist that from one gardener to another. And I'm no help with the dying problem either. But like Rose Red, I think the yarn is gorgeous and a black fleck through it would make it very unique. You could make ladybird socks. I think I'd better stop. :)

Carrie said...

hmmmmm maybe you should contact Helen(waratah fibres) and ask her. maybe there was an issue with one of the lots of dye?
If you have any scrap yarn in a light colour maybe you could try microwaving it to set the dye instead of putting it in a pot...... Test it on a small bit first though!

Anonymous said...

I think I've read somewhere that those little spots can come if the dye is not completely diluted?

(Look at me, sounding like I know what I'm talking about!)

Georgie said...

I was just about to suggest what Carrie did. If its the same dye youre using throughout, sounds like the issue is there, its the only thing that hasnt changed. Perhaps there's a component that hasnt been correctly combined and is precipitating out.

And I certainly second giving Helen R a call too.

Rose Red said...

I LOVE MY YARN!!!! Thank you so much!! You are too too kind! Couldn't find an email addy for you so hopefully you'll get this! And will pm you on Rav as well.

Market Girl said...

Just beautiful colours.
we love cool things like this at Handmade.

www.handmademarket.com.au

P.S just found you clever people on Brown Owls, I cannot believe I have not come across you lll before.

Cheers
Julie