Well, I’d already started my experiments in the basement… just because the hair project wasn’t going well, no need to abandon my mess! I mixed up 5 more small batches of the colors to see what they looked like on white wool yarn. I also had some blue yarn that I was thinking about over-dyeing…
so I tried some bits of that also. After my tests were done, I was left with 5 jars that had about one and a half inches of dye in them. What the heck- the ball of blue yarn was sitting right there. I wet it thoroughly and stuffed it into one of the jars- aqualon yellow.
I put it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. The yarn soaked up all the color- the water was clear. Then I pulled the yarn out of the jar, turned it over and stuck it into another batch of dye- this one was bronze. Again, 2 minutes in the microwave. The result was good enough that I did the rest of the skeins (total 7).
These are the samples I dyed and the first overdyed skein-
Here is half way done-
and here they are, wet-
They are a bit too blue still. When they are dry, I will decide if I want to give them one more dye bath. I will probably knit up a swatch first though, just to see what it looks like. This is really fun- who knows how much of the ugly yarn up in my attic I can rescue!
WOW!! What a great way of reviving dull yarn! I look forward to seeing how it knits up.
We are learning a lot about dyes with your post. Thanks a lot for sharing it. I’m always to lazy to try but the results are so good that it may worth the mess.
PS: Do you use another microwave for the experiments?