March 3, 2007

Space Dyeing Tutorial

This is how I do it. Now, there are as many ways to dye with KA as there is ways to knit. I've developed this through experimentation. Which is what I strongly recommend you do. It's so much fun!

1. Soak skein of yarn in water and vinegar for 20 - 30 minutes. Soaking in the vinegar isn't really necessary, but someone mentioned somewhere it helps the dye strike faster. The advantage of the dye striking faster is less bleeding and more controlled coloring. At least that's the theory!

2. Lay skein out on a piece of plastic food wrap.

3. Prepare dye: 1 package of KA to 1/2 cup water is what I use. You can use more or less water or KA. I like to work in half cup increments so I don't use too much of one color at a time.

4. Spoon dye onto yarn and squish, making sure all the fibers are saturated. The dye will strike the top fibers first, so you may have to flip the yarn over to insure the bottom fibers get dyed, too. Or don't worry about it now, but fill the whole skein over later and dye any areas that didn't get dyed.

5. Continue on using as many colors as you like. I always save a pale color like pink or yellow to go back and fill in any spots that show through white.

6. Wrap the skein up in the plastic wrap and put in the microwave for between 2 and 5 minutes. That sets the dye. It just needs to get hot.

7. Remove from microwave and rinse. Be very careful when removing the plastic wrap as steam has built up in the yarn and can burn. I generally just take the microwave plate out and tilt it into a sink of water. Then remove the plastic wrap and rinse the yarn.

8. I then lay the skein in a big towel, roll it up and put it on the floor. Step on it evenly to squeeze out as much water as possible. Then hang to dry.

9. Clean up and go crazy waiting till it's dry enough to roll into a ball!