dyeing

That depends on how you wide you want the segments to be: the easiest option is to hold the end in between your fingers and carry the end around your elbow, back up, over the thumb, down round the elbow, back up over the thumb.... you get the idea. That will, however, give you quite short sections of dye: it will come out with quite a variegated effect.

As far as the how-to-dye goes, I find it works best if I arrange the wool in a vertical line and space the dyes from light to dark along the length. Then wrap it in clingfilm like a Christmas cracker, coil it into a pyramid with the lightest end at the top and steam it for 20 minutes /pop it into the microwave for 2/3 minutes: then drop the wool straight into a sink full of hot water and unwrap it in there once you're sure it's done. Pull the plug, pop the wool into a pillowcase, tie the top and spin it in the washing machine: no cold water involved in any stage of the proceedings apart from mixing the KoolAid. But then, I dye more roving than I do yarn, so felting is a big concern for me.
Roving I don't normally soak beforehand, but with yarn I probably would. Have you seen the stickies?

I wrap mine up around two chairs facing back to back. You can move them closer to farther apart to make shorter/longer repeats of colour. Tie it in several places so it doesn't get tangled up.

This is how I dye (If you're interested)

Soak yarn in warm water and .5 cup vinegar in the sink for 30 minutes. While it's soaking you can mix up the kool aid. 1 cup water and 1 tsp vinegar per package of kool aid. Add more or less kool aid to adjust the colour.

Lay out long strips of heavy duty plastic wrap on the counter. I do a few layers so it doesn't leak.

Wring out as much water as you can out of the yarn and place on the plastic wrap. I just spoon on the kool aid and when I am done I cover it all in plastic wrap. I kinda fold it in half so I can fit it in a pie plate.

Microwave on high for 3 minutes, let sit for 5 minutes, and microwave for another 3 minutes.

Let it cool off and rinse, wring and hang to dry!

silly - you ask the shipper to wind it for you before she ships it out

otherwise, the backs of two chairs works well, or ifyou can get a willing partner to stand there with their arms out, you can wrap around thier arms. Just be sure that you tie the yarn in several places onceyou make it all in the loop, otherwise you wil have a BIG, tangled mess on your hands.

Quote:


I am sitting here laughing, seriously bright red with embarassment.

Theresa - is this an okay time to tell you that the knitting kit is absolutely friggin' amazing? I am having a ball learning to knit. Thank you so, so much.

I had actually done a few rows (yay me!) when I realized I wanted it to be the same color as my dd's fall jacket (bright pink & green) so I kinda undid it all (frogging, right?) and went about researching dyeing.

I'm afraid I may be falling headfirst into a love affair with yarn.

Thanks so much for all the advice/info/pointers. :

- Sorr, didn't mean to make ya turn all red, I just couldn't help myself!

I'm so glad tha tyou're taking to the knitting thing There are worse things to have a love affair with than yarn, for sure

A kniddy knoddy is great for wrapping hanks, and you'll find it very useful when you take up spinning later. (trust me, it just snowballs...) The chair backs work very well for long lengths, as when creating self-striping yarn.

I've never cool-aid dyed before, so I have no advice there. Have fun!