A salvaged project
Over a year ago I dyed a hank of sock weight yarn using gel frosting dye. I didn’t really have anything in mind when I dyed the yarn. It was just experimental, I hadn’t used frosting dyes so it was just fun to play around. I posted about the experience and said I’d write up how we did it but I never actually got around to it and in fact didn’t do any more dying with frosting dye, in spite of the fact that I was pleased with the brightness of the color
My yarn:
My wrist warmers (do you call them wristers or wrist warmers?) with this yarn looked sort of … well, frankly, like 60s tie-dye. (I should have taken a photo of them before dying but I didn’t … you’d really see what I mean!)
So anyway, I decided to bring out my notes from the initial gel dying and over-dye the wristers.
Quick explanation of dying process:
Gather up:
The item(s) you want to dye
Bowl or bucket in which to presoak the item(s) you want to dye
White vinegar
Water (room temp is fine)
Gel frosting dye (Wiltons, available at Michael's)
Plastic wrap
Rubber gloves
Microwave safe dish or bowl
Microwave
Hanger or rack on which to hang item to dry
Soak the item you want to dye in a mixture of water and vinegar. Thoroughly mix the gel dye in plain ole the water. I made just a tiny batch because this was just a tiny project. I put the wrist warmers in the dye water, swished them around to make sure they got thoroughly and evenly saturated. I probably left them in the dye bath 5-10 minutes. Then I squeezed out the excess water, laid each on a piece of plastic wrap, folded the wrap around it to seal, rolled each up like a cinnamon roll, put them on a dish and microwaved (microwave for 2 minutes on high, leave in microwave for 2 minutes, then microwave on high for another two minutes, remove, let cool until you can handle them, then unwrap, and hang to dry).
For this, I used only about a quart of water and ¼ cup of white vinegar in a plastic ice cream bucket to soak the wrist warmers. Soaked them for a couple of hours. Then I used 12 ounces of tap water to which I added 1 tsp each of red and burgundy gel.
And here’s the final product:
I am actually okay with the result. I have a purple suede jacket that I love, and the purple on the wristers (which doesn't actually show up very well in the photo) is a nice match.
So … see? There’s hope for some of those “really, I thought that was a good idea????” projects.
