Scarf made from self-striping yarn

I finished knitting the scarf made from my hand-dyed self-striping yarn. This is the Dolcetto yarn that was supposed to be purple and black, but came out purple and dark brownish-purple. It's still pretty cool, it's not the colors I was trying for but luckily it is still colors I like.

I really liked the process of dying the yarn and then knitting it to see how it would come out in the final garment, so I have continued with the experimenting. Today I dyed some yarn with food coloring and it will be self-striping with yellow and green stripes. Pictures coming soon, as soon as it is dry.

Yarn Dyeing Project

Today I finally finished my yarn dyeing project.

I started with two types of yarn.
1. Nature's Choice Organic Cotton yarn, in "Almond". This was basically off-white, an unbleached natural color.
2. Sensations Dolcetto (a very soft blend of wool and cotton), in a Lavender color.



What attracted me to these yarns was their very soft texture. I have really sensitive skin, and many yarns are too scratchy to wear directly touching my skin. My neck and face are especially sensitive and sometimes have eczema in winter, so my scarves and hats have to be very soft.
(most wools, for example, are not soft enough, but the Dolcetto blend of lambswool and cotton is exceptionally soft).
The unfortunate thing is that both of these yarns only came in a very limited selection of light colors, and I prefer deeper colors. But, I decided that I would experiment with dyeing since they were natural fibers.

I bought two colors of dye.
iDye in Purple
iDye in Black
This type of dye can be used on any natural fiber- both animal and plant.



My idea was to make a self-striping yarn with the Dolcetto. I wanted to make a scarf that would have alternating skinny stripes of lavender, purple and black.

My first step was to knit a few inches with the yarn in the gauge and width that I would use for the scarf. Then I unraveled it and measured how many inches of yarn was used per row.
Once I determined how long each color segment needed to be, I set up two kitchen chairs far apart in a room. I started winding the yarn around the two chair backs to make a large loop. I tied off my loop in the middle and then I planned to dip one side of the loop in purple, and the other side in black.

The plan for the off-white cotton yarn was simpler. I had two skeins of it, so I was going to dye one of them solid purple and the other one black. Then I would knit with them doubled up to make it chunkier and have both colors showing.

I started the dyeing process with the purple dye. I used both salt and vingar as a mordant, since one of my yarns was a blend of plant and animal fibers.
Generally you use salt as a mordant for plant fibers (cotton or linen), and you use vinegar as a mordant for animal fibers (wool or silk).

I used a large pot on the stovetop instead of the washing machine method. This allows you to use hotter water and the cleanup is easier. It's the recommended method for dark colors.
I put one of the skeins of cotton yarn into the pot, and suspended the Dolcetto yarn over the pot so that half of my large loops was submerged in the pot.
I also threw in a white cotton eyelet top that I got at the thrift store.

The results were very good!
The cotton yarn came out a deep, vibrant purple.
The Dolcetto also came out nice and dark.
The eyelet top came out more of a greyish-lavender, but it was very pretty.

Then I got busy and did not have time to do the black dyeing until the next month. I finally did that today and it was my final step in the project. (not counting the actual knitting!)

I followed the same process I used with the purple dye. Salt, vinger, large pot on stovetop.
I made sure to leave the yarn in the pot a long time since I wanted a nice deep black.
I decided at the last minute that I wanted to make the natural cottton yarn variegated black and grey, so I left half of it soaking for a long time, and just gave the other half a quick dip in the dye bath.

My results were puzzling, to say the least!
The black dye came out purple.
This is the off-white cotton yarn after dyeing it "black". It's not completely dry yet.



This was supposed to be black and grey, from a long soak and a short dip in the black dye.
Instead, it is dark purple and light purple.

Then I left the Dolcetto yarn soaking even longer, over an hour.
This is the result:



The top lavender section is the virgin yarn as it came.
The left side is the "black" dye, not completely dry yet.
The right side is the purple dye, completely dry.

You can see that the black is a different shade of purple, it's most reddish while the "purple" dye is more of a blue-violet.
But both of them are purple.
My purple and black stripes are going to be purple and purple stripes.
otherwise known as : PURPLE.

I also tried to tie-dye the cotton eyelet shirt in the black. I twisted it into a rope and then tied it up with rubber bands and twine. The idea was for it to be black with purple spiral designs.
That came out purple and purple, as well. No black, no grey. Just variegated purple.
It's still drying, I will take photos after it's dry and ironed.

So my conclusion at this stage is that they accidentally put purple dye into the black dye package. I don't think I did anything wrong, as far as mordants or soaking time.
If I had not soaked it long enough, then it should be grey, not purple.
If I didn't use the right mordants or not enough, then the colors should run and fade to grey.
But none of these mistakes would account for the black turning purple.

It also could not have leached purple dye from the previous dye job, because the yarn I was dyeing black was the "virgin" sections, and the eyelet top had been thoroughly rinsed and machine washed, it had no excess dye still in it.

So it's a good thing I like purple, I guess.
I might still try to re-do the black section on the Dolcetto with another brand of dye.

Update, May 15



this is dyed first with the purple dye and then black on top of it.
The areas at the bottom which were not tied up with rubber bands, and which the black could completely penetrate, are actually lighter than the areas that were tied up and kept from the black dye.





Hat knitted from yarn that I dyed.
Using 2 strands of yarn: One solid dark violet-purple, one variegated with dark and light burgundy-ish-purple.
100% organic cotton

Knitted Eyeball

I originally posted this tutorial on Instructables.com on Jan 31, 2009

Intro: This is a fun, easy knitting project using the Knifty Knitter knitting looms. Knitted eyeballs of different sizes make great Halloween decorations. Make a whole set in different eye colors, to match all your family members!

This project is suitable for older children, too, as long as they are old enough to use a (fairly dull) plastic yarn needle.

step 1Materials

The Materials you will need to make this project:

1. Knifty Knitter set of knitting looms.
These come in 4 sizes, for this project I am using the smallest loom (the blue one) but you can use any size. I have made larger eyeballs using the green loom.

2. Yarn- I am using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice. If you are using one of the larger looms you will want to either use thicker yarn (bulky weight) or use a double strand of worsted weight.
1 skein of white yarn
1 skein of black yarn (you won't use very much black so if you have some leftover from another project that is perfect)
1 skein of blue yarn (or brown or green, whatever eye color you want to make)
1 small skein of red yarn or red embroidery floss, I used Sugar 'n' Cream crochet yarn.

3. scissors

4. Poly fiberfill stuffing

step 2Getting started

You will start with the white yarn.
The knitting process follows the basic Knifty Knitter instructions, I'm assuming if you own the looms you have used them before and know the basics.

Cast on with the white yarn and begin to knit a tube.

Knit until the white tube is about 5 inches* long.

*5 inch measurement pertains to using the smallest loom. If you are using a larger size loom, these length measurements will be larger.

step 3Changing colors

Now you want to switch to the blue yarn.
(or brown or green, whatever eye color you chose)

Leave a tail of the white thread anchored to the outside peg, and wrap the next circle of loops using the blue yarn.
Continue knitting with the blue yarn a few more times around, and then tie off the tails of blue and white in a knot together. Pull the tails of the knot inside the tube to weave in later.

step 4Knitting the pupil

Knit about an inch and a half* of the blue yarn, then change colors to black.
Follow the same color changing directions as in step 3.

Now knit about an inch and a half with the black yarn.
When you are done, anchor the tail to the outside peg and cut the yarn leaving about a 6 inch tail.

• Inch and a half measurement pertains to using the smallest loom. If you are using a larger size loom, these length measurements will be larger.

step 5Remove eyeball from the loom

Wrap a piece of black yarn around the outside of the loom to measure it, and cut a piece about 6 inches larger than the loom circumference.

Thread the piece of black yarn in the plastic yarn needle that came with your Knifty Knitter loom.
Use the yarn needle to lift the last set of loops off the loom, one by one, following the basic Knifty Knitter directions.
This piece of yarn will serve as a drawstring to close the pupil, once the eyeball is off the loom.

step 6Tying the drawstring

Now your knitted tube should be off the loom and look something like this.
It looks long and skinny but don't worry, the tube will stretch quite a bit when it is stuffed.

Turn the tube inside out, and pull the last black piece of yarn tight from booth sides like a drawstring, closing off the black end. Tie them in a tight knot and also tie those 2 tails to the black tail from the tube.

Weave in the ends of these tails and the tails from both times you changed colors.

Turn the tube right side out again.

step 7Stuff the eyeball

Start to stuff the eyeball through the white end, which will still be open.
Use white poly fiberfill stuffing, it will still be somewhat visible through the holes in the knitted tube, but it won't fall out.
It won't be as visible through the blue and black sections because they are not stretched as much.

A tip from myrrhmaid on Instructables: use a length of pantyhose as a liner to keep the stuffing from coming out. Great tip!

Stuff it until you get a nice rounded shape, it can even be a little oval shaped like a nearsighted eyeball.

When you think it is full enough, thread some of the white yarn with the plastic yarn needle and thread it through the bottom loops on the white end of the tube.
Close it tight and tie it off using the same drawstring method you used on the black end.
Weave in ends.

step 8Add the bloodshot veins!

Now you could stop here, it's a perfectly nice little eyeball. Roly-poly and soft, all ready to be thrown at someone! But something is missing! To make a good Halloween decoration, you really need some veins.

Cut some of the red yarn, about 24 inch pieces are easiest to handle.
Thread one of the pieces in the plastic yarn needle and start "embroidering" veins onto the eyeball. I just improvised this step, weaving the red yarn in & out, over & under until it looked good. When you reach a stopping point like the end f a vein, just tie off the yarn in a knot and cut off the excess.
This is really a creative license thing, you can make the veins as simple or as branched as you like. No two eyeballs are alike in real life, so no two knitted eyeballs will be alike either.