Re-Dyeing: Two Fixes

Determined not to let my less than ideal dyeing results sit around for a long time waiting to be rescued, I set about re-dyeing them about as soon as I could.

I don't think I showed a picture of the purple after the first dip. Here are the three skeins:

 They're a little uneven and as this closeup reveals, the blue showed through a lot.

Besides being uneven, I think there just wasn't enough dye to "cover" all the yarn. A quick trip to the local grocery store on "Black Friday" restocked my KoolAid supplies, and I dyed the skeins again.

I undid all the ties on all the skeins and re-tied them in different places and much looser. Then soaked all five skeins in the same pot while preparing two dye pots. This time I heated the water and then poured in the Koolaid mix. (Three packs of Black Cherry for the red and nine packs of Grape for the purple.)

I then added the yarn to the pot. I didn't want to pour the dye over the yarn and have it stick more in some spots than others. I also kept the temperature low before I added the yarn and heated everything together. It seemed work.

When I hung the skeins, they were a true mess since I couldn't tie them tightly and stirred a little more aggressively this time to make sure the dye got everywhere. See the one on the left:

What is the cure, you ask? You get to hold the skein by one end and whip it around and twack it against the side of the tub. It was very therapeutic. Not that I really needed it in the middle of a four-day weekend. But it was fun anyway. Two or three times (changing where you hold it) and it is smooth and well-behaved. (See example on right above.)

I was relieved to see no more blue spots in my red yarn, and when it was dry, I twisted it up all pretty like:

I can't promise that picture shows the exact red colour, but it's much nicer than the blue. Now I'm debating what to make from it. I think something for around my neck. Loose and flimsy delicate or thick and chunky? I'm not sure. I'll have to explore what I can do with this yardage.

And the purple? It is much, much better:

No more blue showing through and a deep even colour. I have one skein of white in the same yarn and am looking forward to pairing the two colours in some unknown future project. Maybe a really big, chunky cowl because this stuff is bulky yarn.

One story...two happy endings! :)