Recycled wool

Remember that recycled wool I dyed? I used my friend's yarn winder to turn it into center-pull balls... Isn't it great?

More dyeing and recycling

This is the rest of the pics I took this weekend and at the beginning of the week. First, I repeated the recipe for the really good dye job I did - 2 packets of grape at 12, 2 packets of cherry at 8, and 20 drops of blue at 3. I was curious to see just how different it would end up being!


Looks different already, doesn't it?


And here it is with the first one! First batch on the right, second on the left. Same, yet different. I'm just a little disappointed that the blue didn't come out as vivid on the second batch as it was on the first.


Here's 30 drops of neon purple on the right side and 30 drops of neon pink on the left side.


The purple didn't really come out. Next time I think I'll add a little blue. It's pretty nonetheless.


Next, I decided to try another technique: ball dyeing. It was a great way to dye all the little ends left over, the short lengths, but also the yarn that was used to join the various pieces of the shirt together - this one came apart so easily that I was able to keep even the joining yarn, which was slightly different from the main yarn. Frankly, on the photos, I can't tell them apart...

Wind (or re-wind) your yarn in loose balls so that the dye can penetrate somewhat. The lower right thing is not a ball; it's a hank with a big knot tied in it.


Dye everything blue. They take a long time to cool off!

Then, once they've cooled enough that you can rinse them safely (remember, you can't change the temperature too quickly or they'll felt!), you rewind them so the dyed parts are on the inside.

Here's what it looks like when you start rewinding. On this pic you can start seeing some undyed yarn at places where the individual yarns crossed each other.



Halfway point


Almost all done now! I was surprised this much dye made it to the middle.


All done!


Submerge them again (I ran out of white vinegar, so I used cheap cider vinegar - smells much better!)

And dye them purple! Because not a lot of fiber is exposed to the dye bath, it takes longer than usual to dye. This batch wouldn't clear so I left it in the slow cooker to cool overnight. The water was clear by morning!

Here's the final result! If I were to redo this, I'd know that the purple isn't quite as potent as the blue, and using 45 drops of purple to 30 drops of blue might have worked better. Pretty anyway.


I also took apart two sweaters



This second one was a big disappointment. Not only the shoulder seams are cut, which is the usual (if annoying) way of things, but the *armholes* are cut too, which means that at least half the shirt comes out in short lengths. It's a shame because it would have been really, really nice wool. Next time I get one like that, I think I'll felt it instead and sew something with it.

The worst part is that I seem to be allergic to that wool! I was in full-blown allergies on Sunday, hypersneezing fits and runny itchy nose and everything... I can't work on it more than about half an hour. Look at the colour of my hands after I spent something like 4 hours working on the shirt watching the last day of the Olympics! Didn't hurt, didn't itch, but the colour was very unnatural...


I shouldn't be surprised. I am, after all, allergic to most animals...

More photos! Batches 2 and 3

Here's the start of the second batch.

I used a different technique this time. I folded half the dry wool in the bottom of the pot and sprinkled one 7g packet of orange kool-aid on the one half, then one of cherry on the other half. After that, I folded the remaining wool on top of the flavoured wool and sprinkled one more packet of orange on the first half, then one of cherry on the second half.

I slowly and carefully poured water into the pot, then gently pushed the whole mess down so it was under water. I set the slow cooker on Hi and forgot about it for a few hours (I was busy taking apart the blue and brown sweater).

There was still an orange tinge in the water, so I added some vinegar and left it another half hour. No change, so I decided to dump it, rinse it, and be done with it.

I wasn't sure about the colour at first and considered overdyeing it to add some interest, but...

I think I like it :-)


Here are the two first batches together.


So, I started a third batch. 30 drops of neon green food colouring on the right side, 20 drops of blue on the left side.

Gently poke it down so the dye has a change to spread.


Forget about it for a few hours.

It's ready! I had trouble taking the picture because there was too much vapour coming from the surface - it got hotter than my other batches.

Isn't it beautiful? Too bad it doesn't smell as nice as the other ones though... If I were to sell this, I'd consider adding a little bit of essential oils to the dye bath so it smelled good, like the Kool-Aid-dyed batches.


And here it is after it's all nice and dry...

More photos! Batch 1

Here are my basic supplies. This is an old crock-pot, but they make new ones exactly like this. I can't figure out why they're still making them with the little flower on them though!

The Kool-Aid is the unsweetened version. It should work with the sweetened version too, but you'll need to wash it thoroughly after it's dyed to get rid of the sugar. Not recommended unless you really can't find anything else.

I bought regular food colouring, but apparently Wilton's makes a more professional set in an amazing range of colours. I'll have to try finding some eventually.

Step 1: Set the wool to heat slowly in the crockpot. (It floats, just like cereal.) I needed to push it down several times before it finally wanted to stay under, this is why it looks like there's not quite enough water in the crockpot on this picture.

I added some vinegar to help the dye even though it's not really necessary with Kool-Aid.


This is what it looked like after adding the dye. I'll give you the dyes I placed where according to a clock face: At noon, I added two 7g packets of grape Kool-Aid, at 8 I added two packets of cherry Kool-Aid, and at 3 I added 20 drops of blue food colouring and some more vinegar. Everything was first diluted in a little bit of water.

The photo really shows well what I was seeing with my bare eyes. I was afraid for a moment I was going to end up with mud.


But, lo and behold, this is what my camera saw with the flash!



Better, isn't it? There is a lot of loose dye in the bath, and it seemed to remain that way forever. I'd run to the kitchen every 20 minutes and raise the lid, and poke it, and tell myself to be patient...

The thing with acid dyes is that they need to reach a certain heat, and then, suddenly, everything works the way it should. 20 minutes before I had a bath quite similar to the one above, and then, without warning, I came back to this!


It had suddenly reached the magic temperature and the wool had sucked it all in!

See? No dye left in the bath! All gone! This is how you know it's ready. (The technical term: the dye bath is exhausted.)


Drop the whole mess into a colander to cool by itself (remember, no temperature shock!) and drain. You could let it cool overnight in the dye bath also, but I wanted to do a second batch right away.


I carefully lifted it after a while so the still-hot parts at the bottom had a chance to cool, then I rinsed it in lukewarm water, squeezed it lightly to get some more water out, and hung it in the shower to drip.

Look at the before/after difference! Wow!

Photos, photos!

Here is the first sweater I took apart. 5,99$ at Salvation Army, made in Ireland, pure virgin wool. It had a couple of (repaired) holes throughout. Frankly, I think the colour is simply ugly. As I said before... it's dryer-lint-coloured, a kind of pale blueish gray with specks of purple, turquoise and orange throughout. Yikes! But, the wool has a wonderful thick scratchy feel and has obviously been treated right, because it hasn't felted at all.

There are very nice instructions all over the Internet explaining how to take apart old sweaters for the wool, so I won't repeat them here. On most sweaters, it's very easy to find the end of the stitches holding the shirt together, take the tail out and zip! undo it all in one go. This one undid like a charm!

Here are the various sweater parts after they've been taken apart. Sleeve, body, and neck. It had a tiny bit of serging at the shoulder seams (most sweaters are made this way) so there as a little bit of loss at the top of the body pieces, and because of the holes I couldn't get a full ball from all the pieces, but I got a great amount of yarn anyway.



See how much I got? How cool is that? I took a picture with my hand so you can see how much there is!


I don't have pictures of the second one I took apart, which was a bit of a disappointment because the wool is not in as good a state as I thought, but I have pictures of the third. This one is a blend, 50% wool, with cotton and nylon. 5,99$ at Salvation Army. I'm not planning on dyeing this one. It's super, super soft, that's why I bought it.

Found somme Kool-Aid -- and Richard stole one of my sweaters!

I found Cherry, Orange and Grape! At Wal-Mart, no less. I'd really like Lime and Blue (whatever flavour is), but what I have now is good enough for a first test. Between that and the food colouring, I should get a good range of colours!

I won't be able to try it today, though.

And, Richard decided to keep the Gap sweater -- until it's too old to wear, in any case. It's nice lamb wool and has no holes. I'll have to get another one for my tests!

Edit: We went to Village des Valeurs to replace the one he decided to keep, and I bought three more. One white-ish to dye, one vivid red, and one green. I'm a happy girl!

I found out the exact colour of the ugly sweater I frogged yesterday... it's drier-lint coloured. Exactly the same weird shade of purplish-grey with speckles of colour. It needs dye :-)

One down, three to go!

I took apart my first sweater! Yippee! I'm impressed by the insane amount of yarn I ended up with. I'm happy :-) Next, I can dye it!

Recycling wool

I've been wanting to try this for the longest time... So, finally, I went to l'Armée du Salut and bought three shirts for about 18 $. Two of them (100% wool) will be for dyeing, the other (a mix) will make nice socks or slippers. Really, a Gap 100% wool shirt for 8,50? They are presently in the wash with Woollite, partly because I don't trust their cleanliness, partly to get rid of the smell.

I really wanted to try dyeing with Kool-Aid, but it's proving nearly impossible to find in Montreal - the traditional, unsweetened kind, at least. I'll see if I can find some in the U.S. in March.

In the meantime, I'll dye with vinegar and food colouring, which does exactly the same thing, without the fruity smell. But Kool-Aid has such nice, vivid colours!

I promise pictures :-)