Dying and Living to tell about it a few days later

I had such a great time on Friday. Rena called me and asked if I wanted to dye that day. I told her not really (knowing all the time she was referring to lace and not death itself) Anyway, Rena came over with some fingering weight she purchased from Knit Picks. This was to be our test dye. The resulting picture looks like this. I think it is absolutely beautiful! Rena is planning on making a pair of socks.

Next plan was to dye the skein of Wollmeise lace I received in one of the last updates. The only lace that was available was natural and I never thought about dying it after I ordered it until Rena suggested it. The beautiful skein of 1700+ yards of soft Wollmeise lace looked like this:


Rena had looked up the process of dying on the internet. The only process I ever knew of was the process that I taught within my hospice career. This was going to be a lot more fun......

First the lace needed to soak in vinegar. My son Jason came in the kitchen and thought it was a bowl of angel hair pasta. Good thing we were there to tell him differently. He has been known to eat what ever he sees in the kitchen :)

Next we mixed the dyes one by one. I had decided I wanted to do a combination of green and blue. It took a while to mix the colors..... It was a process that took both of us to do

First with Yellow???? I wanted green and blue. It took a little convincing from Rena that yes Cathy, yellow will brighten the green and blue. Good thing Rena is more artistically inclined than I am....

Very, Very tired... had worked all night but going on this dying process/adventure was keeping the adrenaline pumping. Anyway, the next step was to put canning jars into my canning pot keeping the temperature of everything about 170 degrees. We did not want the liquid to reach boiling point because then the wool is boiled and would not look beautiful at all knitted up into a shawl.



Next step is to add the lace. It starts soaking up the color instantly. We used a turkey baster to make sure all the lace was colored. This was a long tedious process.

The colors are stunning....


It is finally done and ready to go to the sink for rinsing.


I was so afraid that too much color was going to be rinsed out.


Obviously not....


Now to take it outside to dry in the wind. It was a cooler, almost colder day but the wind was blowing and it should do a good job of drying the lace....


The lace is now inside hanging in the laundry room to make sure it is completely dry before we wind it. I know this will make a beautiful shawl or possibly several beautiful shawls. I learned so much that day. I gained a great deal of respect for all the indie dyers that support my sock yarn addiction. I can not imagine the volumes of yarn that is dyed just to satisfy all the sock knitters. No wonder it is a feeding frenzy when the dyers update their online web sites. I also learned that through this appreciation that I probably will not make this a habit. I thoroughly enjoyed myself but I can not afford to be tempted by one more fiber related hobby. I will be proud of this hank of lace, I will knit it into something beautiful. I will possibly dye another hank of natural if I ever get another one.