From White to Wonderful---Dyeing yarn!

So how does a color-obsessed writer/farmer turn her yarn into explosions of color? Come with me to London's house, the woman who's been holding my hand throughout this process. She's fearless. "Let's try this!" "That might work!" "Sounds good!" If I were doing this on my own, I'd overthink everything. I'd lay out swatches and analyze the color combinations. I'd bug my friends---"Should I use the royal blue or the navy blue? Bright Yellow or Yellow Ochre?"

But not London. She loves experimenting, so that's what we did.

Here's the yarn, undyed:

Then we soaked the yarn in vinegar water:

We dyed the yarn using three different methods. The first was painting. We stretched out the yarn and squeezed/poured dye onto it, then worked the dye in with our fingers. (By the way, London's lovely counter top is protected by a clear plastic shower curtain!)

We flipped the yarn over, did the other side if needed, then rolled the skeins up like caramel rolls in plastic wrap and cooked them on the stove for awhile. (This is how the color sets.)

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The second method was to put dye in the bottom of a pot, add the skeins, then squirt/pour more dye over the top.

A third method was to put dye in glass containers:

...add the skeins and more dye. At this stage the yarn doesn't look that great, but the final yarn is the very last photo in this blog---big difference. We then cooked these containers in the microwave!

Whether in the microwave or on the stove, when the water in the pot is clear, all the dye has been absorbed and we're done.

The final steps are to rinse...