Speckle Dyeing Yarns... my process

March 08, 2019

Speckle Dyeing Yarns... my process

So yesterday's post is all about what I did and what results I got. You can see it here.

**DISCLAIMER: I am being told by professional dyers that this process is actually destroying the wool... that in order to be properly cared for ALL wool yarns should be kept below a pH of 3 and heat process/acid dyes should be used only. What I can tell you is that I've done this using soda ash (which has a pH of greater than 8) for more than 2 years, I've just used the last of the yarns I dyed when I started and none of the wool is destroyed or rough or broken. It isn't coming apart... and if you'd feel safer using cotton and bamboo and other plant fiber yarns for this process I would not blame you... apparently soda ash destroys wool. I will be trying this process without the soda ash and will report my findings in a new post!**

Today's post is about the new process I will be using for creating specifically speckle dyed yarns. From my previous post you can see the inspirations I loved and why I loved them and what I'm looking for. As a reference here are a few reminders and new samples of what I am looking for in my own yarns.

The inspirations...
AstraeaMeris, ETSY
What I'm looking at here are just the incredible ways that the browns and rusts pull into all of the other colors like they were meant to be there. What I like about the black specks in ColourRedefined is what I love about the rusts in this maker. Everything is so meticulous and beautiful and even the elements of surprise are within her scope of vision. I just love them so much! This one is Saree.

ColourRedefined, ETSY
What I'm looking at are the amazing speckles. A whole rainbow in an inch and so often no bleed between them, or minimal. Absolutely incredible! And the black just pops like magic!!! I love how the black adds a layer of dimension as if sinking into the strand and the colors leap out. This one is Kill Joy.

RaspberryDyeWorks, ETSY
What I'm looking at here is the spread, underdye and speckles. It looks to me like she splatter dyed or pour dyed and also speckled. And LOOK AT THE COLOR... oh my gosh. So delicious. This is my next store-bought yarn for sure! This one is Dia de los Muertos To You.

AndromedaSockYarn, INDEPENDENT
I purchase from this seller all the time and she makes and is currently doing what I'm hoping to do, just little batch single skein or a few skeins of different colorways as her heart desires. And I am in love with just about every damned one of them. This happens to be a personal favorite that I'll be attempting to create with my own vision. This is What the Duck?

The supplies...
I get my bare wools from The Yarn and I on Etsy because her prices are awesome, she has tons of podcasts about dyeing and handling yarns and, well, I also like her yarns! I have also purchased bare wools from RaspberryDyeWorks also on Etsy because her prices are also awesome, she's young (I think the profile says 9th grade?!) and already dyeing yarns and because I love some of her colorways a real lot!

I buy my cottons directly from Premier here. The trick is to watch for sales at all of the places where you can stock up. I have 10 skeins of the Premier Home Cotton Glitz that I believe I paid 1/4 price for and actually am out of the plain Premier Home Cotton yarn right now. LOL I never pay full price for them. (At the moment Premier Home Cotton is $11.99 per skein on Premier. Looks like I'm searching for a sale! Sadly Herrschners and Michaels and JoAnn only have cones and the mini skeins, so ugh... LOL)

I'm using Soda Ash and cold water dyes, also known as Tie Dyes. I have THIS set of Jacquard Procion dyes and I use a LOT of Tulip Tie Dye kit dyes. There are clear instructions in all of the Tulip kits and that heat isn't required.

Wax paper and/or plastic wrap to protect the counters and simple glad food containers as a spot to let the yarns hang out and do their thing make up the rest of the high tech stuff going on here.

Once they're rinsed I use Soak rinse and it can be gotten here from FlyYarns on Etsy. It smells yummy, leaves the yarn soft without adding Lanolin and works as well as plain old dish soap, which I also have been known to use between times when I have Soak on hand. LOL

A reminder of the "winning" result I got...

***WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!!!***

Will sprinkling with salt shakers on damp yarn and sealing in containers give good results?
When using acid dyeing techniques the dyers sprinkle and then let the yarn sit in the hot water/steam until the dye sets, then flip the yarn and do it again. Would something like this work on cold water dyes?

One worry is that the cold water dye stays active... so when I flip it's going to speckle the other side and smear and blend some... another worry is that it will sit in the moisture and the "bottom" will spread more than the top. I will "agitate" the yarn with a fork about half-way through to see if I get less bleed or more consistent bleed this way.

The Result:
Yes. This is the closest method to the look I want. This is what I will be doing in the future. And the rule of "less is more" is VERY true. Particularly with black. It just really wants to bleed and gray and be generally a pain in the butt. The same is true of the pinks, purples and reds. I think I need three times the salt to dye in these containers.

Pics of some of Tuesday's successes... and why I'm gonna duplicate this process!

containers top, trays bottom

containers

trays

The process... or, How I Did It...

I use warm water and soda ash to soak the yarn. It is important to point out you want this safely warm for your hands, it will cool some and not enough if you get it too hot. 1/3 cup of soda ash to the big bowl of water because the instructions on my package say 1/3 cup to 3 gallons of water for hand dyeing AND because I'm using heat which sets the color harder. I soak the yarn for about 1/2 an hour, sometimes a little longer if I have other things I'm doing. RESERVE THIS WATER... I use it for the dye liquid if I'm dip dyeing or submerging my yarns. Can't hurt to give acceleration to the whole process, right?
Wring most of the water out, but do not rinse. Submerge in dye liquid for dip dye or full under-color dyeing OR lay out on plastic wrap and start speckle/splatter dye process
To speckle I used dye in little salt shakers mixed with table salt. The tutorials I found online recommended large hole shakers and medium to large salt. I'm ok with what I had on hand and it worked in my shakers. You can also use a fork or spoon dipped into the dry dye and then tapped over the yarn. This is irregular and a little frustrating, and I wouldn't recommend it for kids. Salt shakers are best, I think. :D
Shake those shakers or tap those forks or spoons gently... LESS IS MORE... and then using a fork I rolled the skeins and speckled the other side. Then gently lifted the skeins into the plastic glad containers and fluffed them with the fork then covered and let set.
Let the dye set completely. I found that regardless of the instructions, Tulip wants about 4-6 hours and the Jacquard Procion CAN sit for 24 but it doesn't need to when you sprinkle dye this way. I let mine go the same length of time as the Tulip.
Rinse gently with lukewarm water and slowly bring it down to cool water only until no color releases (it shouldn't be much but cold water dye always releases some. reds, purples and black will release a real lot. wear gloves!) I then rinse one last time using Soak rinse or gentle dish soap and wring pretty well without actually abusing the fibers.
Hang somewhere warm and safe to dry. NOTE: do yourself a favor and put an old towel under the skeins if you're having to dry indoors... I KNOW we rinsed it, and this is cold water dye, so just don't let it drip on things that you don't want to have dyed and life will be good. I've heard horror stories of people bundling up yarn in towels to spin dry it. Just don't. Let it take time and dry. In the summer I hang mine on a line and on the backs of patio furniture and let the air and sun dry them. Kind of like laundry of a very colorful and lovely type!

What's going on here, on the test colorway...

riften garden colorway

NOT the best or even second best video ever... but Thor drops in for a quick visit

spring from winter colorway

Still an awful video. LOL And Thor drops by again. :D

I dip dyed all 4 skeins the same way, first in orange, then in mint and then in the super bright green. I am testing the "colorway" so I wanted them to be as close to the same as possible even though they're very different lengths and fabrics. I wrung them out wearing gloves between each dip and after the last one, carefully not laying the colored sections together when doing this.
I sprinkled them mostly in the bright green section and lighter on the rest with a full rainbow of colors, choosing to put the brown only on one side and mostly in the middle.
I placed the skeins in the containers and let them sit for 5 hours. I agitated the skeins after a couple of hours to reduce or spread the color spread that happens because moisture collects under the skeins in the containers and creates a less speckled look on part of the skein.
I rinsed them in lukewarm water wearing gloves and slowly cooled the water. Once it ran clear I added Soak rinse to my hands and worked it through the skeins and then rinsed it until there were no more bubbles.
I took pictures for you and then hung the skeins over plastic hangers in my laundry closet to dry.

While they were wet...