Self-striping and such

Okay. A few days ago I promised a step-by-step photo essay of how I make self-striping yarn. I've been busy, though. Last night I finished pulling together this wholesale order for Wild and Wooly Fibers:

(A few of those skeins, however, including a couple of the self-striping at the bottom, are reserved for the website....)

Also, I had to take my daughter to an eye appointment (in Burlington, an hour away). My husband, trying to fix the kitchen faucet the night before, broke it and had to install a new one. And, just at the time that I would have been bringing my daughter home after dance class AND at the moment my husband, stepson, and another teenager would have been gathering up their stuff and packing the car to attend an off-season wrestling tournament in MA for the weekend, the realtor asked to show our house for the first time. Meaning, it had to actually be clean, without all of us running around. Which reminds me, you can see our listing here if you are so inclined.

Anyway, I did take pictures but they aren't Action Shots and they're not in a kicky slide show like Scout did in her own self-striping yarn demonstration. Her warping board is different than mine, and her photo skills are far better. Go see. (Click on the picture.) Then come look at mine, which goes like this:

Step 1: Have daughter in bathing suit help wind yarn from swift to warping board. With this kind of board, the goal is to make a continuous loop, so when you get to the bottom, you wrap the yarn up and around the outside pegs on the left side and start again. Some warping boards apparently go back up over the pegs the  yarn just came down from, which seems like it would work just fine but I think your stripes would reverse direction in the process. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Step 2: Behold warped yarn. Then carefully tie contrasting color yarn every few yards so as to keep the strands separate. Don't skimp on the ties or you will pay later.

Step 3: Carefully remove the yarn from the board and wind into a convenient loop. Tie this ring off with a DIFFERENT colored contrasting yarn in at least two places. This yarn is just for the soaking and you will cut it off when you get ready to dye.

Step 4: Soak yarn. I cannot believe I'm even bothering with a photo, but whatever. There are actually five skeins in this pot; 3 self-striping and 2 regular.

Step 5: Behold Dye Studio. In my case, this is a counter area in the basement next to the dryer and under a heating duct. We artists like to be cold and uncomfortable. It inspires us. If you do not have a similar Dye Studio, you can always use a windowless gardening shed or perhaps a culvert. Or your kitchen, but you won't be as inspired.

Step 6: Lay out yarn. This can be a bitch. But sometimes it's not.

It's hard to photograph, partly because I have laid out two long strips of Saran Wrap and they are causing glare. Essentially, I try to arrange the yarn in separate piles, one for each color of stripe. You math people probably have determined exactly how long each section must be to translate into how wide a stripe you will get with a given number of stitches and a given needle size. I get brain cramps even contemplating that. I like random stripes anyway, so I just make piles. Here's what the piles look like in a six-stripe skein:

Step 7: Finally, the fun part: the dyeing!

Some people are very diligent about applying the dye. Scout uses a foam brush and the results look quite nice and even. Some people soak each pile in a different pot of dye. I use squeeze bottles, and not only that but I'm kind of random about how I squirt they dye onto the yarn. I like the variegated look that comes with random squirting, if you'll pardon the expression. Sometimes I'll even use different colors within one stripe section, if I'm feeling wild. Whatever works for you.

Step 8: Wrap the yarn in the Saran Wrap. This can be tricky.

Step 9: Roll up the skein for dyeing:

Step 10: Steam that baby. (Lid removed for photographic purposes only.)

Step 11: After steaming, let the dyepot return to room temperature before rinsing. I'll tell you what: Some people recommend letting the yarn sit overnight to soak up any residual dye. In my handpainted yarns, I'm usually able to use just enough dye so that the yarn dyes but the dye water is totally exhausted. By that, I mean that when I unwrap the yarn and put it in a rinse bath, there is NO residual dye. I still rinse it 3 times, but it's usually clear from the get-go.

Not so with this particular batch of self-striping:

I knew that I had used too much dye as soon as I rolled up the skein and saw it leaking, so I steamed the skeins in plastic bags (loosely closed) to keep the excess dye from contaminating the other skeins. Ideally, there woldn't be so much dye. I imagine using the foam brush to apply it would prevent this. Not getting carried away with the squeeze bottles wouldn't hurt either.

Step 12: Rinse. There is no picture of this step because my husband was replacing the faucet at this point and I had to use the tub and it made me grouchy. I generally put a little Dawn in the first bath (not to the point of suds) and then rinse two more times. This batch required like 6 rinses until the water ran clear. Live and learn.

Step 13: Spin out in washer.

Step 14: Let dry.

Step 15: Put yarn back on warping board so you can reskein it:

Step 16: Wind yarn from warping board onto swift. This process alone takes a good 15 minutes. My warping board is a bit too large to make the process comfortable and I'm surprised I don't have bursitis from doing 3 skeins in a row last night.

Step 17: Twist into skein and enjoy!

Just listing all these steps has made me question why anyone would go to such trouble, but it is a fun process. It's just too bad that the actual dyeing is such a small fraction of the process.

The miracle is that it's 7:00 and my daughter is still sleeping, so I managed to complete a big long post uninterrupted! Today we ship out that wholesale order, and if you saw me driving my husband's work pickup (he borrowed the car for the weekend) to the post office you would wet yourself. I'm so worried I'm going to take out a stop sign or oncoming car that I sit hunched over the wheel like a sissy, terror in my eyes.

I'm pathetic, really.

I can hear the chickens squawking. As I say every morning, "Release the hens!"

Comments

[Scout]

First of all you shouldn't even be talking about ME since I'm just learning how to do it and YOU do it as a job!! Thank you so much for showing us this, I find it all so facinated. Did you see I wrote last night that I will NEVER be doing this for money because it's so time consuming?

I'm trying so hard not to buy the one you know I want.....ughhhh....I did just get some more money for my birthday....

What dyes do you use? My next thing is to start mixing up the colors. I haven't gotten there yet. I had to let the glue dry last night on my board so I haven't been able to play with it yet.

[Amy]

What a great post! makes me appreciate your beautiful yarns even more. :)

[Katy]

Wow, that IS a lot of work! But the end results are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing the process.

[christine]

Wow, I really liked seeing the "master" at work. What a process! It makes me love my "jessie's yarn" all the more. Bob is SO sick of me talking about my "jessie's yarn from Vermont." "Yeah, christine, it's great......can we talk about politics or motorcycles or anything other than your freaking yarn from Vermont?"

[Ramona]

I like your dye studio!

[Jane]

Whew, that wore me out just reading it! But you did a wonderful job. Good luck with the house sale, too.

[Helen]

I love your house!
I wish I could buy it...
but I think the 850 mile daily commute would get old really fast.
(I WOULD be massively closer to my parents though...)

[Laura]

Love that short notice from the realtors! Ugh - always at such a convenient time. heh

Your six-color yarn came out SO pretty!! I have to make a bigger board so I can make more stripes on mine. :)

[Anne]

We could totally afford your house (house prices are crazy in the UK)! But the 3300 mile commute might be even more difficult than Jane's...

I love the dyeing lesson - I'd love to try some dyeing, but there are too many other things on my plate just now.

[Carrie]

Love it, can't wait to try it on my cotton. Lemme ask - is it the squirt bottle that gives your "solids" such a tone-on-tone look, or do you do something special to make it do that? Do you even bother with the warping board for those?

[carole]

ooooh, cool tutorial, thanks! Scouty's going to help me make a warping board so I'll be soon getting in on the fun! What dyes do you use?

[Diane E.]

Your self striping yarn came out beautiful! Thanks for the photos.

[JessaLu]

You said...random. ;o)

[lynne s of oz]

That self striping yarn you blogged? I am soooo glad it is not on the website cos I would've cried if I had missed out on getting it and I already have 40 skeins of yarn waiting to be turned into socks... It is such a girly colour!
It's sorta freaky looking around someone's house online but not on their blog. Y'know?

[Donna]

Great post! I did some dyeing last week, and wanted to make self striping yarn. I don't have a warping board, so it was a set-up-chairs-all-over-the-living-room-and-wind deal. I think I'll get or make a warping board next time! ;)

[Mona]

That's a great tutorial. I was wondering how to get some longer stripes without using every piece of furniture in the house :). Cheers
Mona