When I was pregnant with baby girl #3, I spent a lot of my spare time dyeing wool and knitting. I've had a look through some past pictures and thought I'd share some of them on here. This is the process I use for dyeing my wool. Firstly, I wind it round and round something (in this case the end of the couch, sometimes I use a chair)...
Then tie at regular intervals with scrap yarn. I like to use a contrasting colour to make it easier to see later...
Here's a pic of the resulting skein. I made quite a large one in this case. I think it was 400 grams of 10 ply wool.
Next put in a bowl and cover with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and warm water. Soak as long as possible, the longer you leave it soaking, the more vibrant the colours will be.
I forgot to take a photo of the next step (I'm kicking myself now!), but wearing rubber gloves, I covered the kitchen table in glad wrap and laid out my skein in a circle. I then divided my vinegar/water solution into equal parts (totaling the number of colours I wanted to use). In this case I planned a rainbow, so made lots of dyes using my food colouring. I then carefully poured the colours where I wanted them, making sure to cover all white parts of the wool. I used my fingers to "press" the dye through the wool, rather than adding too much liquid which would have been more messy! Next wrap the glad wrap around the wool and add wool to a microwave-safe dish. Microwave on high power for 2 minutes. Open the door and check on wool. I usually give it a second 2 minute burst after this and notice that the liquid in the bottom of the dish becomes more transparent once the wool has taken up the dye.
Very carefully remove wool from dish and glad wrap and allow to cool for a bit..
Immerse warm wool in warm water to rinse. Drain and refill with slightly cooler water and some wool wash to remove excess dye. Rinse again in cool water than place in washing machine to spin.
Hang to dry in shade and admire your work..
Put skein back over arm of couch, trim contrasting yarn from earlier and wind back into a ball..
Then knit into whatever you like. I was so happy with the way the colours pooled like a rainbow on this jersey. The purple trim was dyed in the same way.
Just before our girl arrived I dyed some more wool purple, blue and green, then knitted her some longies..
Another thing I've knitted fairly recently is this dress for Miss 4, also making a matching one for her dolly. I adapted this pattern to suit what I wanted, from a jersey pattern I like. Then I adjusted the measurements to suit the doll..
And one more thing to share. One of Daddy's old shirts became a dress for Miss 4. I was planning to make another for Miss 2, but that hasn't happened yet!
