I have always been so impressed with how indie yarn dyers can come up with the most beautiful colour combinations, so when Holly from ilex.every.day mentioned that she was offering yarn dyeing classes, I knew that I had to be there.

• 2 skeins of bamboo yarn – a fingering weight (1) yarn
• Dharma Acid Dyes
• Baking soda
• Syringe

I want to start off this blog post with the huge disclaimer that I am in no way a yarn-dyeing expert, so please don’t take any of what I say as fact. I’m just writing down what I remember and what I observed!

To the best of my knowledge, Holly pre-treated the yarn by soaking them in a sodawash. This helps the fibres in the yarn open up so that they can better absorb the dye.

I told Holly that I was aiming for an ombré look with a seafoam blue/green, and I was blown away with how quickly she helped me achieve it. I’m not sure what dye colours Holly actually used, but it came out beautifully! Holly mentioned that there were a couple of different ways to achieve the colour gradient, such as putting a lot of dye at the top of the skein and squeezing it down, or using a syringe and diluting the dye for each section. I decided to go with the latter so that I could have a bit more control over the fade.

After adding the dye, I wrapped the yarn up in saran wrap for 24 hours. When that was done, I soaked it in a mixture of cold water and a dye-setting fixer. This helps the colour to stay in the yarn. I was mesmerized by the way the yarn looked at this stage, especially under the water.

The next step was to let the yarn dry! (Please excuse the way my shower looks, but I was really excited about taking more pictures of the yarn). This took quite a bit of time, and I was pretty impatient throughout. Still, it was worth the wait once the yarn was finally dry and ready to be skeined.

After the yarn was completely dry and skeined, the colours were definitely more muted than they were during the initial dyeing session, but I still love the fade that happens across the skein! I can’t wait to work this yarn up. I love the subtle shimmer to this yarn too, so I think it’ll make whatever project stand out even more.

This was such a fun experience, and it might have been a bit dangerous for me to dip my toe into the world of fibre dyeing. I can easily see how addicting this could be, and I reallyyy shouldn’t be diving into any more hobbies considering how much I already have invested in crochet.

Until next time, happy crafting!