I'm not sure how it happened, but I reached a reasonably advanced age without knowing you could dye wool. Well, obviously I knew that it was POSSIBLE to dye wool, I haven't reached said age without acquiring any knowledge at all, but what I didn't realise was that you can do it easily, cheaply and even relatively quickly, in your own kitchen, using things that you've probably already got. Sounds good, right?
Things you will need:
- Yarn. MUST be protein-based (i.e. animal fibre). I used a ball of Rowan Pure Wool in some kind of natural colourway. Superwash wool is ideal for this, as you can't accidentally felt it, but you could use any kind of wool, alpaca, angora, etc! Blends will work to some extent, but might be a bit less vibrant.
- Colouring agent! I used Kool Aid for this, because I happened upon it, but if you are in the UK, it can be tricky to get hold of, unless you pay over the odds or have an American friend (thanks Wayne!). Any type of food colouring will also work. The more vibrant the colour, the brighter your yarn will come out. Experiment - see what happens!
- A chair or similar sized implement for skein winding.
- Pans and implements for fishing and stirring. Stainless steel is your best bet, unless you fancy brightly coloured wooden spoons!
- White vinegar (optional).
- Salt (optional).
Got all that? Right, you're ready to rock!
Firstly, decide whether you want your wool to be a solid colour, or self-striping. I went for self-striping cause it's just a little bit more interesting. It you're going self-striping too, decide how long you want your stripes.
You need to wind your yarn into a loose skein. If you're doing a solid colour, you can just wind it round the back of the chair. For self-striping, set two chairs as far apart as the length you want your stripes, and wind, wind, wind! When you're done, loosely tie your skein to keep it all together. Don't tie too tight, or you'll leave tie-dye style stripes on your yarn! It's helpful to use a contrasting wool to tie it, so you can find them easily when you're re-winding.
Soak your yarn in a bath of warm water, a little squirt of washing-up liquid and a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar if you're using it. I left mine in half an hour or so, but the longer the better, really. It needs to be thoroughly saturated.
Fill a large pan (or two, for self-striping), with warm water and about 25g of salt for each 100g of yarn. The salt isn't necessary, but it slows the absorption of dye slightly, so you'll get a more even result. Remember if you are using two pans to use 25g overall, so 12.5g in each! Then add your colour. More packets of Kool Aid will give a stronger colour. I used 4 packets for 100g (2 of each colour). If you are using food colouring, just add a bit and see what happens! Test the colour by dipping a bit of kitchen roll in.
Set up your pans on the hob. If you're using two, put them as close to each other as you can. Then turn on the heat! Take your soaked yarn out of the pre-wash, carefully squeeze out the water, and put it in the dye bath. For two colours, put one end of the skein in each pan. Stir gently, but be careful, especially if you're using non-superwash wool! The saturated yarn should draw up the colour on both sides, put you can help it along by drizzling a little of the dye water on the undyed bit of yarn between the pans.
Bring the water to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You'll know it's done when all the colour is in the yarn and none of it is in the water!
Once it's done, turn off the heat and let everything cool down. If you're using superwash, you can pick it out as soon as the water is cool enough to not burn you, but for non-superwash, let it cool COMPLETELY so you don't risk felting it!
Rinse in cool water until the water coming off is clear. Be very careful not to agitate too much if your wool is not superwash.
Gently squeeze the wool to get excess water out. Roll it in a towel till it's just damp, and then hang to dry!
Once it's totally dry, wind into a lovely-coloured and very fruity-smelling ball! The resulting colour is permanent and the item can be washed and dried as normal.
Ta-da! MUCH more interesting yarn. Hooray!
