The Dye Pot

Cantaloupe

Materials

100 grams fingering weight, merino wool (Knitpicks, undyed)
PAAS Easter egg dye: 2 tablets orange, 1 tablet red, 1 tablet yellow.
Beet water infused with tea (5 bags)
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Cantaloupe

This was a little different :)  We had fresh beets for supper and the water in the steaming pot was a rich, deep red-violet.  So, when the beets were out of the steamer basket and the gas was turned off, I added 5 teabags (Red Rose, for those of you taking notes) to the water to steep.  When it had all cooled down, I removed the teabags and covered the pot, intending to use the now red-violet-bronze liquid for dyeing.

The next day, I soaked the yarn (no dish setergent, no salt) and dissolved the dye tablets in about 1/2 cup of vinegar in a separate bowl.  Then the yarn went into the crock.  This time, instead of regular old tap water, I added the beet/tea liquid to the vinegar to make the volume needed to cover the yarn.  It also went into the crock which was covered and set to run on low.

This ran a long time because the liquid never cleared.  It was obvious that the yarn had taken up quite a lot of color, but color remained in the liquid as well.  I let it go for 6 hours - about twice the time this usually takes - before I shut it down and let it cool.  Washed, rinsed, wrapped in a towel and then hung to dry (on a coat hanger in the kitchen window - standard procedure).

Stashed :)  The swatch was done on size 3 (US) needles.

Notes:  The most startling thing about this experiment was that I had expected a fairly bright orange and instead I got something much more mellow.  However, since I introduced two new variables (the beet juice and the tea - very poor scientific method!), I don’t know for sure what exactly provided the muting effect.  I suspect the tea, but it insists the violet tones in the beet juice are at least as much to blame :)

Oh, the dye liquid never did clear but it was obvious when I washed the yarn, that it had taken up all it could and wasn’t going to let any of it go!  I had expected it to run, but once the residual dye liquid was rinsed away, there was no more color in subsequent rinses.

This yarn also felted very slightly, as did all the other merinos.

Posted by Robbyn on 06/02 at 01:25 AM