Hand Painting Yarn

Spinning and Dyeing Yarn

Posted by Aurum Press

About

The secret of hand painting is to not overlap your dye colours, but to use water to blend them together seamlessly. You’ll find that using this technique lends itself to softer colour transitions and more control over secondary colours.

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You Will Need (9 things)

  • Large Bowl
  • Water
  • Acid (vinegar or Citric Acid )
  • Wool Tops
  • Rubber Gloves
  • 3 Colours of acid Dye
  • 4 Plastic squirt Bottles
  • Clingfilm
  • Microwave-safe glass Bowl

Steps (8 steps, 60 minutes)

  1. 1

    First, fill a bowl half-full of cool water. Add 60ml (¼ cup) vinegar or 30ml (2 tbsp) citric acid. Add the wool top to the bowl and let it soak for 15 minutes. (You can reuse this solution later.) Remove excess water by squeezing the wool gently, wearing rubber gloves.

  2. 2

    (a) Mix your dyes into three of the plastic squirt bottles. You can make them as light or as dark as you like. Check that all of the dye has dissolved into the water. Cover your dyeing workspace with cling film, then lay out a length of wool on top of the clingfilm and squirt on your first dye colour.

  3. 3

    (b) Leave a 7.5cm (3in) space between the first colour and the second colour.

  4. 4

    (c) Continue adding sections of each colour to your wool top. You can dye long sections or short sections in an unlimited number of colours.

  5. 5

    (a) Once you have dyed the lengths of fibre, go back between each colour and use a squirt bottle filled with water to saturate the wool in between the colours.

  6. 6

    (b and

  7. 7

    c) Then wrap the wool in clingfilm and squish the saturated area to blend the colours together.

  8. 8

    Carefully seal the clingfilm ends to prevent leakage and place in a microwave-safe glass bowl. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Check to see whether the wool has absorbed the dye. If not, microwave on high for 3 minutes more. Let the wool cool and rinse with lukewarm water to remove any excess dye.