So, I dyed some wool...

I'm doing a longies Knit-a-long on Ravelry with the Eco-Friendly Family board over on thebump. I'm so new to knitting I just know I irritate the tar out of them with all of my questions- but that is how we learn, no? Anyways, I decided since I will probably eff this project up to the moon and back, I'll just use some cheap wool for this first pair. I bought some of this:



Fisherman's wool from Michael's in "oatmeal". But I can't stop there. Nope- too boring. I decided to dye a small portion of it blue (using this tutorial on thejennigirl's blog as a guide) for the waitband and cuffs on the legs.

Here's how THAT went.

*insert knowing look here*

First off, this wasn't your ordinary October afternoon in the south. This is what was going on outside:




And this is what I had resorted to with Noahbeans (he was a bit fussy that afternoon):



I unwound a good bit of yarn and then tied a string around it in two places (I will not do this next time... you'll see why in a minute). Other than that, as I did just as Jenni instructed and first washed the yarn in Johnson and Johnson's baby shampoo. I then rinsed and let it soak for a sec in some tempid water in the sink.



While that was soaking, I mixed one packet of koolaide in 2-ish cups of water (I didn't want the color to be too dark, since I was going for a "natural" color of blue).



Then put it in the microwave for 2 minute intervals, letting it cool a little between each session in the micro-zap. Here's how it looked after the first 2-minute interval:



.. and here it is after the last 2-minute interval:


Can I just pause and say HOT DANG! THAT IS COOL!

The wool completely absorped the dye, leaving the surrounding water clear! Maybe this is old news for people who dye wool regularly, but I thought it was pretty dang sweet. Awesome magic trick for me to put up my sleeve for another day down the road.

Anyways... I then unraveled it REVEALING THE UN-DYED SPOTS from where I tied it up (see? bad idea!) and let it dry. (BTW, I'm not too upset about the "oatmeal" colored parts showing through.. that's the beauty of handmade, right?)




So here's what I ended up with, next to what I started with. Not bad for a first time, huh?


Especially considering I did it all during one naptime. See? Here's Noah at the end of the process.

Ah, rainy-day babies and wool.