Hand Painted Sock Yarn First Attempt

I have been itching to try my hand at this for a while. I bought a couple of books on hand dyeing, and I’ve been watching videos on YouTube, and last week I ordered a kit. It arrived on Tuesday evening, and, as per my usual, I spent my free time on Wednesday circling and procrastinating. I carried on knitting my current sock project, and I cleaned my kitchen. I told myself that cleaning my kitchen was really part of the dyeing project, but it was really about fear. Ha.

Yesterday I had no excuses, so I set up a workspace with two large bags (saved from the latest bulk bird seed purchase) to protect the counter, and a couple of old towels lining a big old metal tray. The tray is one of my favourite second hand shop finds – because I found it in a second hand shop in Canada many years ago during a holiday and brought it home stuffed in my suitcase. I have never really used it for anything, but it is perfect for making a dyeing space.

I had a lot of fun with this project. I had instructions, and my background research, but really it’s all about trial and error. I kept it simple and chose colours that I like, and I didn’t try mixing dyes – but I am definitely intending on trying to create my own colours as part of the process.

I’m really happy with the way it all turned out. I succeeded in getting all the dye taken up by the yarn, and when I rinsed the yarn the water was clear. Now I am interested to see how this skein will translate into socks.

The only complaint I have is how long water takes to evaporate and dry. There’s no need!