To dye for dahling

A couple of weeks ago the boys and I were at a loose end and decided to start our sock dying project. Ages ago I bought some undyed sock wool from Knitpicks with the intention of the boys dying it and me knitting the result into socks.



Finlay and I had previously tried to dye it using beetroot (Beetroot) but the resulting pale pink was not an option for socks for Finlay.



The boys wanted socks with actual stripes, so our first step was re-skeining the yarn into long skeins.


This step was not as easy as I expected (or hoped) and the yarn got hopelessly tangled both during this and the re-winding phase!

We then dyed the yarn using Koolaid and food colouring. We soaked the wool in a strong vinegar solution as a mordant, then dyed the yarn in 2 halves.

Adam chose blue and orange koolaid, Finlay chose green food colouring, then lost interest!

Here is their dyed yarn drying. I have already started Finlay' socks. I managed to actually create a longer skeing with this yarn and so the stripes are really working out well.

Adam's yarn is likely to be a more mottled effect as the skein was much shorter. The difference between the skeins might well be attributed to me winding Finlay's skein without assistance!!