Dye-a-Long Tutorial for ACID DYE

by Zoe Armstrong You will need: Jacquard acid dyes in Pink, Turquoise, Emerald and Violet. The smallest one 1/2oz/ 14g Gloves, old marigolds will do, or latex, whatever you prefer Dust Mask Old teaspoon for measuring out dye Knit Picks Bare Palette Fingering Yarn, 1 hank. Old Newspapers Cling lm/saran wrap Sieve White vinegar Glass/plastic jars, old tubs, plastic cups - Something to mix the dye in! Foam Paint brushes Cup measures (Kitchen safe for both acid and kool aid dyers as these wont come into contact with any dye) something for mixing the dye, spoons, lollipop sticks, wooden skewers etc Salad spinner or old towel for getting rid of excess water Pot for steaming yarn in. Old cloth/sponge for mopping up spills, excess dye

Please DONT use anything you plan on preparing food in after using for dyeing. Dyes can be toxic! You may use the cup measure for food afterwards as you will only be measuring water and vinegar with these.

Preparation
Yarn Preparation The 1st step for dyeing yarn is to soak your yarn. Put it in a bowl with some room temperature water (not too hot and not too cold, you dont want to shock the bre, or it will start to felt) and about a tablespoon of vinegar. The vinegar sets the dye onto the bre, so I like to make sure its been soaking in it, so it can penetrate all the way through. Soak your bare yarn for at least an hour. you can set this up the night before so its ready in the morning!

Preparing the work area to dye Lay out your old newspaper across your work surface, then lay out your cling lm on top of that. Make sure you overlap each piece of cling lm by at about 3 inches. You will be placing your yarn on top of the cling lm for dyeing, and wrapping it up in it to be steamed once youve nished. Lay out enough cling lm so that you can place your yarn in the middle of it comfortably, with enough extra around the side so you can wrap up the yarn easily. Now is the time to get your pot of water for steaming set up. Get it ready and put it on so it will be boiling and ready to go when you are. Fill the pot with enough water so it wont dry out for about 30 minutes while the yarn is steaming. Preparing the water/vinegar solution for the dye and yourself Get 4 old jars/plastic tubs etc and ll them up with a quarter cup of warm water (doesnt need to be too hot, just warm enough to help the dye powder dissolve quickly) and a quarter cup of vinegar and take them to your dyeing area. Now put your dust mask and gloves on.

Preparing the dye Get your old spoon and roughly measure out a half teaspoon of each dye and put them into into each separate tub. Stir them in carefully till all the dye powder has dissolved. Dry your spoon off each time with your old cloth before dipping into a new dye. Dont worry about getting an exact weight/quantity of dye. Your dyeing will still work whether you are over or under. Remember this is meant to be fun, so relax and enjoy it! Dont worry if this doesnt look like much dye, it is just enough to cover all your yarn. Do not be tempted to add more liquid!

Getting the yarn ready for dyeing Remove your yarn from the water/vinegar bath and gently squeeze out the water. Now transfer it to your salad spinner or roll it up in an old towel and stand on it to really get the excess water solution out of it. You want it to be damp to the touch, not dripping wet! Make sure you sort the hank out so all the loops of yarn are in the right place and lay it out on top of you cling lm like it is in the picture. If you think youll need more cling lm, now is the time to do it!

Beginning to dye - the fun part!

Start with the PINK dye (you might want to move the other dye out of the way so you dont knock it over!), dip your foam brush into the dye, you may have to squidge the brush up and down a few times to get it to absorb the dye, especially if its a new brush. Then, starting at the middle top of your yarn, start to paint the yarn. This just means pressing the foam brush down onto the yarn. Dont be shy at this point, really work that dye into the yarn! I stab my brush onto the yarn with a lot of pressure. You want to make sure you are working the dye into the bres, and all the way through the yarn, so dont be gentle! Make your stripes about and inch think, again dont worry about being exact. Work the pink dye into your yarn as shown in the pictures. 2. 1.

3.

For this side of yarn the yarn you should be using about half the dye volume, except the pink of which you will use a little less. Now get the TURQUOISE dye and a new foam brush and apply the dye, working it in, in the same way as the pink dye, BUT, leave a gap of about 0.5cm between the pink and the turquoise and make the stripe about 2 inches thick.

Now get your EMERALD dye and a new foam brush. This time you want to make another stripe of about 2 inches, BUT, you will overlap about 1 inch of the emerald on top of about 1 inch of the turquoise. This means you are mixing the colours right on the yarn!

Now get your VIOLET dye and a new foam brush and ll in the remaining white areas, BUT, remember to leave another gap of about 0.5 cm between the Violet and the pink. You can butt the violet right up next to the green, but dont overlap it. You can see here that I dont have any dye running off the yarn. If this does happen you can use your foam brush to soak it back up and if your getting too messy, use your old cloth to mop up. You shouldnt really have a mess of dye running off the yarn, and if you are getting this then you are not working the dye into the the yarn properly, but again, dont worry, this is a fun, rst time dyeing, just clean up and move on!

We are leaving a space on each side of the pink to let it set into the yarn, before the other colours ood it. This will make sure you get a nice lilac colour with small hints of pink shinning through. You should have used about half of the dye solution for each colour now, except the pink, which you will have a little more of.

Now ip your yarn over! You might get some dye running off while doing this, but dont worry, just clean it up! Your yarn will look something like this!

You can see how much you should have worked the dye through the yarn! Now paint in this side of the yarn as you just did, starting with the pink and remembering to overlap the Emerald with the Turquoise. This time though, you can butt the turquoise and the violet right up next to the pink. Depending on how you ipped your yarn over, the colours might be orientated a different way from my picture. Dont worry, just follow the stripes, putting the same colour of dye on top of the colour that is soaking through. Remember not to mix your foam brushes - keep the colours separate.

When you are done you should have used up pretty much all of your dye, you might still have a little pink left over. This is ne! Now ip you yarn back over and use up any excess dye lling in any white spots that are left. If you have excess pink dye, then go ahed and work the rest of it into the pink stripes. If you have no extra dye left, dont worry, this is good! Just use your foam brushes and press them down on any white spot and youll nd that there is enough dye in the yarn already and it will soak in, getting rid of the bare yarn! Remember to use the right foam brush for the colour of stripe you are working on! Now you are ready to wrap up your yarn for steaming!

Flip the top and bottom of the cling lm over your yarn, then ip the top and bottom of the yarn inwards.

Use the same method for the sides.

Then fold in half lengthwise again.

And fold in half again so you have a little yarn bundle!

There is no ofcial way to wrap your yarn, this is just how I like to do it! You can wrap a different way if you like, just make sure the bundle of yarn is going to stay as sealed up as possible.

Now put the yarn into your old sieve, or whatever you are using to steam it in and put it on top of your pot of boiling water and cover with a lid. Dont worry if you dont have lid, just cover with tin foil or cling lm and poke a few holes in it!

Let it steam of 30 minutes then take the sieve out of the pot. Be carful of steam escaping, make sure your face is out of the way and your hands covered! Now let that little yarn bundle cool right down, I know its tempting, but be patient. Once you can touch it safely with bare hands then CAREFULLY start to open it. You can open it over your newspaper to catch spills or over a sink. The yarn may still be VERY HOT on the inside so exercise caution and dont be silly, burns are not nice! Now that your yarn is out, if its still warm let it cool down. Hanging it outside is probably best as it will be dripping wet! Once its cooled right down you can now rinse it. Fill up a sink with room temperature water and place the yarn in it (your dye is set now, so it is safe to put in the sink). You will see the excess dye in the water. You can VERY GENTLY swirl the yarn around in the water, but remember, your yarn has just been through a lot and you dont want it to felt so this is not necessary! Refresh the water until you can put the yarn in and it stays clear. Dont squeeze the water out of your yarn between rinses, just lift it out and run a new sink full, then place the yarn back in!

When your yarn is all rinsed out, take it out of the sink and GENTLY squeeze out excess water. Put it back in your salad spinner to spin out excess water, or wrap it up in an old towel and stand on it to get the majority of water out. Hang it up somewhere to dry and you are done! Now give yourself a pat on the back and go clean up! Its best to clean foam brushes and tubs outside if you have the facilities, if not, just give your sink a REALLY GOOD CLEAN afterwards! You can always ll up a bucket with water and rinse them out that way, so you are not getting unset dye in your kitchen sink!

One extra step you can do but is not necessary, is to give your yarn a nal soak in some Eucalan/ Soak or something of that nature, just to get some moisture back into the yarn. You can also wait and knit up a project like the Dyed in The Wool scarf and use the Eucalan/Soak when you are soaking your item ready for blocking. I hope you enjoyed this dye-a-long and feel condent enough to try dyeing again! Bye!

2013 Zoe Armstrong