Dyeing for the Adrift

I talked about starting the Adrift sweater by using some stash yarn which needed to be dyed first.  

I tackled that project by immersion dyeing which I have never done.

In the past, I have always painted the colors on yarn and then wrapped it up in plastic and then steamed for 30 minutes to set the colors.  I decided to try a new technique by watching The Dyer's Notebook podcast by immersion dyeing.

This way you submerge the entire yarn into a pot of color and wait 30 minutes for the color to exhaust leaving a clear pot of water with colored yarn.

First I soaked the yarn overnight.  The 3 skeins of malabrigo lace were a bit felted so I might have a bit more felt which I will have to detangle.  The yarn is a single instead of a ply.

I used four different colors starting with brilliant blue, then to forest green, then wood rose and finally sea breeze.  For the first, third and fourth soak, I tied up the skeins in different places to create a resist.

I did a great job and this is the color I ended up with.

I really like dyeing this method, but need to get some heat resistant gloves to remove the skeins in between the color changes.  The yarn needs to come out of the pot before adding new colors.