Yarn Haul - Dyeing

Oh the joys of Instagram - I used to think it was a waste of time, but I am having a blast on it with being able to follow my vape stuff and even better yet - get overdosed on knitting goodstuffs - including giveaways.  It was one such giveaway that I entered where one of the prizes is a sock blank.  I've never heard of that before - so off to Google I go.  I think these are the best thing since sliced bread!

Sock Blanks are pre-knit tubes of undyed sock yarn. You dye the pre-knit tube with the stripes that you want, then knit your socks directly off the tube. Somehow this seems like cheating, but in a good way.” - Yarn Scoop.

Neat eh?  But what is happening is that indie dyers are dying them or painting them with various designs and you can get them in 1 or 2 strand blanks.  1 strand is one 'sock' at a time and 2 strand is 2 socks at a time where they are likely to be identical. I started to dig a big further and saw where some people are making their own blanks at home on crank looms or knitting machines, and then dyeing them.  Oh the ideas that are skittering through my brain!

I've been very successful with dyeing my own fabric for my quilts - I've done discharge dyeing where you remove or lighten the colour with "bleach"; I've had the most fun with resist dyeing where you use wax to block off parts of your fabric, then dye or paint, then remove the wax.  

I don't think it'll be to much of a step for me to dye yarn.  Granted I won't be resist dyeing as wool definitely is NOT the same as cotton; altho on a sock blank it could work.  I have a lot of the supplies on hand already from my fabric dyeing.  I've been watching a lot of videos on how to do it.

I grabbed a two skeins of a yarn that is 50% superwash Merino wool, 25% rayon from bamboo and 25% nylon.  I did some research on whether the bamboo is considered natural or not.  If this company used chemicals to remove the bamboo it is considered to be not natural opposed to the process that spins it down.  But rayon is considered a cellulose fibre and that 'should' work well with my current dyes and paints.  As for the nylon part of it, that will likely be lighter in colour as the polys do not hold this dye well at all.  Which is actually okay because I do prefer tonal yarns - less stripy.  There are a several ways  can do this; paint on the dye or  paint, do a pot dye; or even use a mason jar.  I'm going to have to do some more research, but the dye bath or pot dye is likely to be the best choice.

At the end of December Knitpicks had a sale that had me drooling LOL  I got a haul and a half considering what I spent.  When I ordered they had a promo where if you spent $50 you were eligible for free shipping and a free tote.  I was hard pressed to reach that level, but I did

I grabbed 3 different yarns to use; Hawthorne Kettle Dyed yarn (2 hanks), Chroma (2 skeins) and at the bottom corner is what they refer to as Alpaca Cloud Fingering yarn.  Wow, but it seems so light and airy - almost like I'd be knitting with cobwebs!  If there's enough I might put that to a shawl instead of socks, it seems that delicate!  FINALLY got my needle gauge for US sized 000, 00, 0 and 1 needles.  *knitterhappydance*  To reach my free tote bag - I added Sock it to Me and locking stitch markers :)  I think what I've got is going to keep my busy for a while now.  I can't wait to get into the Hawthorne skeins - those have such a solid hefty feel to them!


I finally won my first contest on Instagram.  This company is based in the UK - It was shipped to my cousin who lives there and he's already gotten it.  It'll be on its way to me soon :)  Once I get my prize in, I"ll post a pic and share it with you.  The package included a set of Hiyahiya bamboo needles, a skein of yarn, Hiyahiya stitch markers, kitty snips, tape measure and a pattern that I've no idea what it is :)  oooohhhh I'm so excited!!

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