The Yarn Experiment Continues!
Hello and happy Monday! I'm still on my quest for finding natural items around the house to use as yarn dye. As luck would have it, we have a few rose bushes that were planted by the original owner of our house. Last year, the rose bushes rocked...I mean we had gorgeous light pinky-peachy roses almost weekly. This year, almost nothing. And rose bushes not in bloom have a serious case of the uglies.
You can imagine my surprise to round the corner of the garage last week to find eight or so perfect roses on our previously barren bush. Picture perfect.
So what did I do? Yep, chopped all their heads off! Fearing I wouldn't have enough dye color, I grabbed a few dark purple petunias, as well as some pinky-red Snapdragons (supposedly they are one of the best flowers to dye with? - Seriously, how do you dispute that?).
I soaked my yarn (about 100 yards) in 1/2 cup of vinegar and mildly hot water (read somewhere that helps the yarn "grab" the dye) for about an hour. I made sure just to set the yarn into the hot water and not agitate it as I was using my favorite Jaegar Extra Fine Merino and feared I would felt it. After about an hour, I squeezed the excess water/vinegar out and set aside.
I set the roses petals (removed the center), snapdragons and petunias in about three cups of water on the stove top and nearly brought it to a boil. Within 10 minutes, the flowers released all their color to the point that the petunias almost became translucent. I brought the dye off the stovetop and carefully lower the yarn into it.
Because I am a freak, I brought the steaming hot pot outside on the deck with me to watch. It was kinda an amazing process. Within 30 minutes the water was completely clear because the yarn with the vinegar bath actually acted as a dye magnet. It really does work! The yarn soaked up the dye from the water, leaving the water almost crystal clear again. The result is a beautiful pinky peachy yarn that I will post photos of this afternoon! This, by far, was the most successful dying adventure yet...partially because I love pink and was so very happy to finally be able to use roses from the garden!
For anyone wanting to try natural yarn dying, this website was awesome for information:
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html
You can imagine my surprise to round the corner of the garage last week to find eight or so perfect roses on our previously barren bush. Picture perfect.
So what did I do? Yep, chopped all their heads off! Fearing I wouldn't have enough dye color, I grabbed a few dark purple petunias, as well as some pinky-red Snapdragons (supposedly they are one of the best flowers to dye with? - Seriously, how do you dispute that?).
I soaked my yarn (about 100 yards) in 1/2 cup of vinegar and mildly hot water (read somewhere that helps the yarn "grab" the dye) for about an hour. I made sure just to set the yarn into the hot water and not agitate it as I was using my favorite Jaegar Extra Fine Merino and feared I would felt it. After about an hour, I squeezed the excess water/vinegar out and set aside.
I set the roses petals (removed the center), snapdragons and petunias in about three cups of water on the stove top and nearly brought it to a boil. Within 10 minutes, the flowers released all their color to the point that the petunias almost became translucent. I brought the dye off the stovetop and carefully lower the yarn into it.
Because I am a freak, I brought the steaming hot pot outside on the deck with me to watch. It was kinda an amazing process. Within 30 minutes the water was completely clear because the yarn with the vinegar bath actually acted as a dye magnet. It really does work! The yarn soaked up the dye from the water, leaving the water almost crystal clear again. The result is a beautiful pinky peachy yarn that I will post photos of this afternoon! This, by far, was the most successful dying adventure yet...partially because I love pink and was so very happy to finally be able to use roses from the garden!
For anyone wanting to try natural yarn dying, this website was awesome for information:
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html
