and the white all cotton sweater becomes a nice pale green,
which became vanishingly pale after the rinse, so it now has a spatter of bluing across it to make a variegated effect. And who knows what else will happen before I've done with it. No pix till it's done.
And the chartreuse ew silk knitted Liz Claiborne sweater is now in pieces and dyed with a mixture of blue and purple and yellow KoolAid to come out as a nice variegated warm orangy rusty color.
It's always interesting to see what colors do to a fabric that's already a neon color to start with.
These are not meant to look like the finished idea, folks. They are raw material for making other things, either by unraveling and reknitting or crocheting, or simply cut out like fabric to make other items. Dollivers are jonesing for new dresses and purses and who knows what else...and the variegated idea looks very chic in use. Much better than those flat, dopy solid colors beloved of traditional knitters the world over...cough cough.
This sort of dyeing is great because you can use the microwave and regular kitchen containers with no fear, since it's a food item, and the only bad part is the ghastly fruit flavors that scent the kitchen in the process. But I can plunge my hands in with no fear other than staining them. Given my aversion to gloves for any purpose, this is a Good Thing. And you can find easy instructions just using Google.
Come to think of it it's probably okay for medium aged kids, with help with the hot water part. Or absent minded old ladies like me. Nothing toxic anywhere.
Our lunch-time knitting group at work had a yarn dyeing party a while back. I have since learned the variegated yarn we made wasn't such a good idea because, at least the way we did it, it doesn't color pool like other yarn. Dyeing fabric like you did may be a better approach.
ReplyDeleteWish I'd known about this when the girls were little, what fun we would have had!
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