Dyeing - Sock Yarn Gradient Dye

What is a gradient yarn? There's a lot of discussion about this in the yarny world; but for the purposes of this blog, a gradient yarn is one that changes from one colour to another over the course of its length in a gradual way. Sometimes there is a third or fourth colour.

There are a number of ways to make a gradient yarn.

1. spin one long single from two colours of fibre, blending as you go, and then n-ply it
2. spin one long single from a dyed length of gradient fibre, and then n-ply it
3. spin two singles using one of the above methods, and 2ply it (this could soften the blend but may also result in barber-poling)
4. dye the yarn by splitting it into several small skeins and gradiating the amount of dye used on each skein (there are a number of ways this can be done)
5. dye the yarn by dipping one end in one colour and the other end in another colour (this risks ending up with a quite distinct colour change)
6. dye the yarn in a ball and a pan

I decided to try method 6 first.

The first thing I had to do was work out how much yarn I wanted. I plan on making some socks, so I weighed a pair of socks I own in a similar yarn. They were 60g, so I wound 60g of yarn from this massive ball of sock yarn I have.

Once I had that, I wound a smaller amount, around 15g, which I intend to use for afterthought heels. I'm not especially fond of the undyed colour of this yarn, it's a bit yellow.

Once I had my 60g, I set about finding the middle, which I did by winding a new ball until the existing one weighed 30g. Then I took that middle yarn and re-wound the ball two strands together. This is so that I will have two similar balls to work the socks from two-at-a-time.

I dug around in my "dye" box and found some nice food colours. I started with the red one. I put a good splash of red into the pan, added the yarn (including my heels bit) and warmed it up. I rolled the ball around every few minutes to try to get an even saturation.

Once it had cooled, I squeezed some of the water out and then let it dry a bit more. Since this isn't superwash, I had to be careful with it to avoid felting.

I rewound the ball in the other direction with a view to either leaving it as it was or dying from the other end in a different colour. I found that the red had split a little on the inner sections into a quite pretty shade of orange. The colour is also kind of variegated in the middle sections. I expected it would be a bit variegated, but I am surprised at how it's come out. I like it as it is though,

Next I decided to try method 4. 

I hope to knit Bosc Pear (Ravelry Link) which is an asymmetric shawl/scarf. The length can be adjusted to change the size. I'm hoping to make a smallish one, so I wound off 4 lots of 25g into connected skeins. 

I then got 4 plastic cups and put food colouring in them, red in one, a mixture of red and "black" in the next, "black" and red in the third, and then "black" in the fourth.

As you might know, black food colouring isn't actually black. The one I have is green-based, so I expected that the yarn will be green rather than black on that end. I expected the middle two colours to be a mixture, probably reddish-brown and greenish-brown, but it's always a bit of an experiment!

Once they had soaked for a while (overnight), I transferred the yarn into some cling film and put it in a bowl to zap in the microwave. I don't usually do this, I usually use a steamer, but the steamer is in the garage behind a lot of other boxes, so microwave it is!

As I expected, the black separated into other colours, but it's a nice progression still from the red, through burgundy, to a greenish brown, and then to a greenish grey. I think this will make an exciting scarf!

I was a little disappointed though, the cups were not really big enough for the amount of yarn, so the red is a bit patchy. 

Dyeing - Food Colouring

There are a number of ways that you can dye yarn and fibre. One of the easiest is to use food colouring or Kool Aid. Make sure that you use packs without any added sugar!

First, you'll need to decide how long you would like your colour repeats to be. If you like variegated yarn then an average skein length should be fine. If you want a longer repeat then you might prefer to wind the yarn around something like a table, to get a longer skein.

Once you've got your skein, you can soak it overnight. This isn't crucial, but it should help the dye to take more evenly. If you're using food colouring rather than Kool Aid, you'll need to add a splash of vinegar to the soak.

When your yarn is soaked, you're ready to start dyeing. All of the dyes will stain, so protect your work area. A plastic sack would work fine. If you're using just one colour, you don't need to spread your yarn out much, but if you're aiming for three or more you will.

Next, make up your colours. If you're using Kool Aid, you don't need to follow the usual instructions. For all dyeing it's not the amount of water that you use that determine the depth of colour, it's the amount of dye compared to the amount of yarn. One sachet of Kool Aid will dye about 100g (4oz) of yarn. I use only a small amount of water (about a third of a pint) per colour because the yarn can only hold a small amount of water. If you're using food colouring, add a splash of vinegar to the dye solution too.

Kool-Aid dyes mixed and ready to use

Now, squeeze as much moisture out of the yarn as you can. I do this by wrapping it in an old towel and standing on it. Then spread the yarn out over the bin sack.

I use a paintbrush to apply the dye to the yarn, but you could use a dropper too. When applying the colour, make sure that it soaks all the way through to the underside of the skein so that you don't end up with un-dyed patches and try not to add too much water.

When you've finished painting, you need to set the dye by heating it. You could use a microwave or a pot on the stove, but I have an old plastic steamer that I use for dyeing. If you're going to use it for food in the future, make sure to only use food-safe dyes in it.
Wrap the yarn up in a heat-proof food bag or cling film, and pop it in the steamer for 20 minutes. This is plenty of time to set the dye. Once it's done, leave it to cool before you handle it. This is partly because it's hot, and partly because you might felt the yarn at this stage.

Take care when handling hot yarn, not only might it felt but you could scald yourself

Once the yarn is cool enough to handle, rinse it under a warm tap until the water runs clear.

Finally, hang the yarn to dry. If you used a long skein, you might choose to re-wind it into a shorter skein at this stage.

I tried using black food colouring to get a black yarn. It didn't work. The dyes separated out (black is actually made up of red and blue, in this case) but it still looks fab!

Experiment, because even if it doesn't work you might end up with something amazing!