So last night was the first meeting of the season of the OKG, and what treat we had! The owner of Knit Knackers, one of our LYS’s, gave a very good demonstration (hard to do with 100+ ladies knitting and gabbling!) on how to dye 100 % wool using nothing more than Wilson cake icing dyes, a big pot, some vinegar and some cling wrap!
Very easy to do up in your own kitchen! You can even skip the boiling water stage and use your microwave instead! Who knew?!
My tablemates and I were quite excited by this demo, and when we all expressed similar interests in learning the skill more intimately, we resolved to have our own little dyeing party in one of our own kitchens. So some organizing will need to take place to get wool blanks and the other supplies.
It was really quite amazing to see all the variations that could be created with the same dye colors, depending on the method used in the application. For example, I did not know that the black Wilson dye color separates when added to hot water and if you do not stir it, it will produce beautiful mixes of greens and purples, but not black, that randomly saturates the wools.
There were so many examples of great “home-dyed” yarns that it was hard to contain myself!! I did however go and caress a few skeins to see the colors up close and personal, and later at home, fell asleep dreaming of steaming vats of color and soft woolly kaleidoscopes!
I can tell you, I am very, very, very much looking forward to planning our little “dye-party”!! And yes, Susan – you’ve on the exclusive invitee list – I made sure of that, since I know you’ve been wanting to do this too, for ever so long!!!
Knit on….
1 comment:
I'm intrigued by the colour combinations of the black dye. And I have a skein of white sock yarn. Hmmmm.
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