First a story, then a giveaway (with advice asked of course). Yeah, you have to sit through a story first!
Here’s the deal. One of my daughters found a sweater she wanted me to knit for her in one of the recent Interweave magazines. She wants it a “bluey-charcoaley” (yes, her terms) color. I didn’t have enough of any blue, or charcoal in my stash but you know what I do have enough of? Off white 100% alpaca in a sport weight. Perfect. Not only do I not have to buy yarn for this project but I get to learn about dyeing yarn also. So.
Any advice on dyeing alpaca??? Leave me a comment, and then…
As a giveaway, I’ve come across a copy of Hat Heads, by Trond Anfinnsen, aka KnitKid. The subtitle of this book is 1 Man + 2 Knitting Needles = 50 Fun Hat Designs.
And these are fun. Colors, Solids and Patterns. Designs, motifs and words. Yes, words! Knitted into the hats. Too cool. And, to top it off, you get tips for designing your own one-of-a-kind hat in case you don’t like any that are featured. But come on, there are 50 hats to choose from! Even green ones!
This book combines one knitter, one photographer, and 800 hours of knitting! `Trond also shares another sort of warmth, with stories of the family, friends, and neighbors who inspired these 50 favorite hats.
Need some quick gifts? Hats are quick, easy, fun and well, easy and fun! Give it a try, but don’t forget to help me out with my “Dyeing of the Alpaca” project!
I hope that leaving a comment gives me an entry to the book giveaway. I am hat hopeless. I knit either too large or too small and definately uninspired.
Many thanks.
Alas, I know nothing about dying wool, much less alpaca. Google says this, however: http://www.owning-alpaca.com/dyeing-wool.html
I’ve never tried to dye alpaca. I’ll be checking back to see what others have to say though. (My lys has some great alpaca in stock that I’d love to make a gift out of, but it’s the wrong color.)
Good luck with your project.
I can only share what I’ve learned from my knitting group… If the yarn was DYED white, You might need to pre treat it to remove residual dye – there is dye remover on the market. We had a gal who tried to dye what she thought was virgin fiber and it came out irregular – not in a good way.
Sadly, I’ve not learned about dying fibers, but love the knit hat book with its many tempting hats that should cover just about everyone’s head that we know.
That’s too advanced for me .. I’ll check my mother, she is great 🙂
All my experience dyeing yarn has been with food coloring, and the only time I dyed alpaca I found that the color did not saturate very well, resulting in pastels. Wool dyed in the same colorbath came out much darker.
what about, combining the white with a black, making a tweed that reads as charcoal? Since it is a small project if you need to combine the yarns and they create too big of a gauge, you could split the ply and reply the black and white together. Just an idea…
i have yet to try dyeing alpaca. I know from presonal experience that it doesn’t felt as well! (smile) good luck though! I have a feeling it may take the color in a more mellow way, like bamboo.
Dying yarn?
I am afraid to try it.
Have never tried dying my own yarn – but good luck! My daughter is also very fussy about colors. It has to be pink!
MICROWAVE DYEING I have 25 alpacas who graciously donate 150+ lbs of fiber each year to my yarnaholic addiction. I use Procion dyes and vinegar. In a mustard/ketchup squeeze bottle put about 1-2 tsp vinegar, add 1/2 tsp – 2tsp (depending on how deep you want the color)into the vinegar and swish around to get the dye to mix into the liquid. Fill the bottle with water. You can mordant your yarn with either alum or I make my hubby save me his urea (urine) and I use that for a mordant. I soak my fiber in the kitchen sink with the mordant for about 1/2 hr. Just lightly squeeze out all the mordant liquid you can and place your yarn in a microwave safe container (I use pyrex dishes from the thrift store) I use a rectangular one but round will work too. Start painting your colors in stripes on your yarn. I would suggest about 2″ of color and unless you want to have them bleed together to make a 3rd color keep them 1/2 inch apart as the dye will travel. Place in the microwave and cook on high for 2mins, let set for 2 mins and repeat this two more times. I forgot to mention, cover the yarn dish with plastic wrap. Remove from microwave and allow to get to room temp. Take one skein at a time and rinse, and rinse, and rinse until you water is clear. Hang to dry.
I thought you might want to know where to get the supplies. I use Best Dye (google it)
dont know if ya need to know anything to enter this cause i have never dyed wool or anything but i would love the book. it looks good
Please enter me for the great book giveaway, I haven’t tried to dye any yarn yet – would love to try some day. Thanks!
I would love to enter the give-away, sadly, i really don’t know squad about dyeing yarns!! sorry!
I’ve never dyed yarn either, but I have made some really ugly tie dyed t-shirts about a thousand years ago when we were all hippies. Since I assume you are not looking for ugly yarn, I have no advice to offer.
I needed this info, very informative and quite easy to understand.
Dyeing Alpaca? A wool right? Dye as in any kind of wool I would guess. Thanks for my entry into this giveaway!