Plunging in Again.

I haven't dyed yarn since moving, but offered to teach a class at DFW Fiber Fest this year, which they accepted.  Last year at DFW Fiber Fest I took a course in natural dyeing (eco-printing, the teacher calls it) and a friend was in the class; she told me that she had fun but is sensitive to compounds so couldn't do more at home unless she could order pre-treated items from the teacher.  That class used cotton fabric as the base, which needs to be treated with washing soda and other harsh mordants for the dye to bind.  I mentioned that I've done dyeing using kitchen-safe (and mostly edible) products, and she talked me into applying.

Shortly after DFW Fiber Fest opened registrations I was told that nine people had registered for the class, which was more than I expected!  In this weekend's update, we found out that the class has SOLD OUT.  I am in shock.  Complete shock.  Yes, it is a small class (fifteen students) but I didn't think that many people would be interested.

The first year of DFW Fiber Fest (2006) I taught this class, and had three students registered.  I might have had a fourth as walk-in.  I've kept in touch with two of the three.  One of the students went on to run a dyeing business for a while (I have some of her yarn in my stash) and the other does spinning and other things; I don't know if she still dyes.

So I figured I need to work on the agenda for the class, and make sure the schedule will allow for what I want to show people.  This means doing some test dyeing.

One item I want to show them is dyeing on blanks, which are preknitted (could be pre-crocheted; I am going to test that also) pieces of fabric that are dyed, then unknit (or un-crocheted) and made into something else.  Mostly these are called "sock blanks" made from two strands of fine yarn knit together, that are then dyed or painted and unraveled, allowing for two matched socks without having to figure out where a stripe begins, as you do with a single long skein.

I found some yarn of a good weight (since the premade blanks are more than I wanted to charge students for class supplies) and with a small swift and knitting machine, gave it a try:

  

The skein is just shy of 200 yards and made a blank about 31" long:

I also prepared some leftover bits of yarn from other projects.  I wound three hanks, and had a bit of some moth-nibbled yarn from a donated stash that I simply tied in a couple of places with yarn.  The two on the bottom are the same yarn, but it was in two pieces (I think because of socks? or moths) so I wound different lengths to show how that can affect the end result.

Then it was into a dyebath.  I took some notes about quantities, and started with some green dye, then pink, and finally blue from a set I'd purchased a couple Easters ago to dye eggs:

I had no real plan, just water and white vinegar and dye, and part of each piece, except that the small tied one I threw in whole.  I forgot to take a picture of the pink in progress, but remembered for the blue:

It was such an incredible colour I went to my charity yarn stash for some other yarns to add to the pot.  I had a bit of beige and a quantity of white with blue specks, which you see at the bottom and top of the above photo respectively.  I'd planned to leave the white yarn with just green, until I saw the blue, so I dyed part of the white in blue and left some alone.

End results looked great when I put them on my drying rack:

I couldn't wait for the small bit to cool before I unwound the yarn tying it:

And this is the final result arranged similarly to the first photo, but with the additional yarns at the right:

Yes, not much of the pink, no surprise to anybody who knows me.  For the two at the bottom, I decided to leave one partly in the original and dyed the other; originally I was going to leave both of them with half undyed, but I liked the blue too much.  In retrospect, I could have done the smaller one in half-pink, so it's something to remember for a future dyepot.

Speaking of which, I wish I'd done two of the blanks, so I could wind one into a ready-to-work cake and the students could see the before and after for a gradient.  So next up will be to create two blanks (and maybe a third for crochet - or should I do two for crochet so I can leave one and wind one to show the differences?) and dye them together, then wind one into a cake.

While the yarns simmered (it takes about an hour for the dyebaths to exhaust, important to know for a class) I finished the Giverny Shawl, except for running in the ends:

Not much of the yarn left, so I didn't do the ruffle edging.  But I think it's fine as it is.