Inspiration Mondays: YARN DYEING!

The Monday after the 4th of July is a little sad for me this year because we had so much fun with friends and family that it's a little quiet around here. I'm trying to brighten my mood by thinking about the awesome project I worked on last week when I entered the world of yarn dyeing!

My last post was all about upcycling and in the process of researching for it, I discovered an AMAZING website (Leethal-picture to above is from her site) full of tutorials, including several on dyeing your own yarn. I decided to try my hand at it. Leethal's turuorials center mostly on hoew to dye with Kool-aid and since I'm not dye hard (haha, sorry, couldn't resist) just yet, I thought this would be a easy & inexpensive way to start.

In keeping with the upcycling theme of my project, I knew I couldn't buy the yarn first-hand so I set out to my local Salvation Army-type store called Caring & Sharing. I just found out they had a small selection of donated yarn so I decided to check it out. I had high hopes, but also wasn't expecting a miracle. After all, the yarn I needed had to be wool or another animal fiber and white so that it would take the dye. I dove into the bin (

not really, it was pretty icky) and lo & behold I found it! DK weight, white, wool yarn!! Since there are no price tags I didn't know what to expect when I headed to the checkout I was shocked again when I got the whole ball (I'm still not sure how many yards it is, but it's A LOT!) for FIFTY CENTS!!

I took my yarn and headed to the grocery store to buy my Kool-Aid. I want to make something for my daughter with it, so I let her choose the color and she picked Lemon-Lime.

I couldn't wait. I took my yarn and Kool-Aid home and started right away. First step was to turn some of the yarn into a hank so that each strand of yarn gets dyed. Not having a niddy-noddy made this a little harder, but I put two chairs together and went to town.

I soaked it in hot water to wash it and prepare the yarn for the dye. Kinda looks like spaghetti!

ADD THE DYE & let it soak!

I hung it outside to dry. There are white flecks where the hank was tied. It's my first attempt, what're you going do?

Last thing to do is twist in into a hank and take a beauty shot. I used a lot of yarn so the hank was cumbersome and looks a little 'fat'.

I haven't worked it up into anything yet, but I hope to soon and of course, I'll share my pictures!

So, what'd you think? Looks like fun, huh? I've got to try multiple colors next time!

HAPPY HOOKING!