When you want to knit with a yarn that is genuinely unique, try dyeing it yourself.
There are two approaches. Chemical or synthetic dyes are quick and easy to use. Natural dyes are slower and produce colours you cannot buy.
Which yarn to dye
Protein fibres – wool, alpaca, silk – take dye readily and are what most yarn dyeing assumes.
Plant fibres like cotton and linen need a different class of dye and a more involved process.
Acrylic will not dye at all by any home method. This catches people out.
Buy undyed yarn sold for the purpose. It comes prepared and in hanks, which is the form you need – yarn in a ball will dye only on the outside.
Preparing the yarn
Wind it into a hank if it is not already one, and tie it loosely in three or four places with scrap yarn. Those ties stop it tangling, and skipping them is a mistake you make only once.
Soak the hank in warm water for at least half an hour before dyeing. Dry fibre takes up dye unevenly.
Chemical dyes
Acid dyes for wool, set with heat and a mild acid – vinegar or citric acid.
The basic method: dissolve the dye, add the wet hank, heat gently to near simmering, and hold there until the water runs clear, which means the fibre has taken all the dye. Cool slowly, then rinse.
The two things to get right: do not let it boil, and do not shock it with a sudden temperature change. Both cause felting.
Natural dyes
Onion skins, avocado stones, black beans, madder, weld, indigo. The colours are subtler and more complex than synthetics.
Most natural dyes need a mordant first – usually alum – to fix the colour to the fibre. Without one the colour washes out.
It is slower and less predictable, which is either the appeal or the drawback depending on temperament.
Safety
Dedicated equipment. Pots, spoons and containers used for dyeing should never go back to food use. Buy cheap ones from a charity shop.
Rubber gloves, always. Dye stains skin for days and some are irritants.
A dust mask when handling powdered dye. Breathing in fine dye powder is the real hazard.
Ventilation.
Getting even colour
Move the yarn gently and keep it fully submerged. Anything sitting above the water dyes lighter.
Or do not – uneven, semi-solid results are what a great deal of hand-dyed yarn is sold for, and they knit up beautifully.
