(cue Bad Cop from the LEGO movie)

 

LOOK AT ALL THESE CUTE MINI SKEINS!
Can you tell I’m excited about them? It is because I dyed them myself, using only 5 colors of acid dye.

I took a class a few weeks ago that was all about yarn dyeing. What they are, what you need, how to do hand-paint and how to immersion dye – and how to do this all safely. I left the class with a hand painted skein of dk weight, an immersion/kettle-dyed skein of sock weight yarn, stained fingers and bunch of excitement about dyeing my own yarns.

This is all sock weight yarn I separated into 5 gram mini skeins, winding them up on this contraption called a niddy-noddy* – fun name, right? I set out to experiment with mixing primary colors, playing around with the strength of the dye stock and adding gray or black to mix. I took notes on my color ratios for reference.

Now, I don’t knit socks. At least not yet, anyway. And these skeins look so pretty all stack up, but I am going to use them. I started making hexipuffs for a Bee Keeper’s Quilt. As my friend Heather commented on Instagram – its when quilting and knitting collide! These little knitted hexi’s are really fun and quick to make. I’m not sure how long it will be before I have enough to stitch together for a lap sized blanket, but that’s what I’m working towards.

*I made the niddy-noddy using this helpful tutorial – link.