Hand-dyeing yarn with batik colour dye in the microwave

Hand-dyeing your own yarn is fun and can even seem magical. By mixing some exciting ingredients, you can make unique yarn in beautiful shades. It is also a fascinating DIY project with a certain randomness. Once the chemical processes are in progress, you cannot be quite sure how the end result is going to be before you pick up the yarn from the acid bath and out of the microwave.

guide til håndfarvning af garn

If you choose to dye your yarn in one colour, for instance blue, naturally the yarn gets unicoloured. However, the final yarn colour also depends on:

  • The acid you use to fixate the colours.
  • The type of fibres you dye.
  • The proportion between colour dye and water.
  • The technique you use to paint the colour onto the yarn.

If you are curious to try out yarn dyeing, we have gathered some advice on hand-dyeing with regards to acid bath, colours and fibres to ensure a successful process.

guide til håndfarvning af garn

Don’t be afraid to experiment

A top advice is first and foremost: Do not be afraid to experiment with colours and yarn qualities! Yarn dyeing is a fun process where you learn and gather practical knowledge as you go by playing with the yarn. It is also highly satisfying to “wring” the dried, newly coloured hank so that it is ready to be wound and used for knitting, crocheting or other creative crafts.

We also provide some extra tips and tricks for the different steps of the hand-dyeing process which have a large impact on the final result.

Tips on the acid bath

  • The content of the acid baths gives different results: Before you hand-dye, the yarn must be soaked in an acid bath to help fixate the colour. For this guide, we have used the colour red and white vinegar. However, we also experimented with an acid bath with balsamic vinegar. The acid bath with balsamic vinegar gave the hank a beautiful, deep rusty-orange colour instead of the bright red shade from the white vinegar. We also tested an acid bath with apple cider vinegar which also had a significant impact on the final colour. Moreover, the yarn received a wonderful smell of sour apples. Consequently, it can be worth it to test different types of acid baths to obtain the desired colour and look.
  • Place the yarn in the acid bath before and after the colouring process: It is important to place the yarn in an acid bath before colouring it. However, we also found that it helps the fixating process to place the yarn in the acid bath again once the hand-dyeing process is finished. This fixates any excess colour after the heat treatment. Even though there might still be excess colour, you do not have to rinse the yarn as long afterwards.

guide til håndfarvning af garn

Tips on colours and fibres

  • Different colour absorption depending on yarn type: Colours are absorbed differently depending on the yarn type you use. The purer the wool, the less you must rinse the yarn afterwards which results in a lower water consumption. Nevertheless, the yarn must ALWAYS be rinsed after colouring! It is a dream to hand-dye pure merino, but sock yarn with 20-25 % synthetic fibres is also wonderful to hand-dye. Be aware of the percentage of synthetic fibres during the colouring process – the higher the percentage of synthetic fibres is, the more difficult the fixation of the colours becomes.
  • Varying colour results: The result also varies if you hand-dye yarn which is already coloured. You just have to experiment. If you have some hanks or skeins in a colour you do not like, you can use them for practice. If the yarn does not get the colour you want, you can try to colour it again with a darker shade.

guide til håndfarvning af garn

  • Other guides for hand-dyeing yarn: We have guides for hand-dyeing yarn that graduates or hand-dyeing yarn with speckles. If you want the yarn to be evenly coloured, place the hank into the colour mix and leave it there until you can see that the fibres have absorbed the colour. Remember to pour out any excess colour before putting the yarn into the microwave.

guide til håndfarvning af garn guide til håndfarvning af garn

Practical tips for comfortable hand-dyeing

  • Always wear an apron to avoid ruining your clothes.
  • Always have oven mittens or the like at hand when removing the yarn from the microwave. The yarn is very hot! Another advantage of placing the yarn in an acid bath after colouring it is that you can handle the yarn faster afterwards.
  • You can use needles or pipettes or regular paint brushes to obtain a different colour result. There are many creative possibilities once you have gotten into the hand-dyeing process.

With all this practical knowledge at hand, you are ready to get going! You cannot do anything wrong – just have fun hand-dyeing your own yarn!

Other guides for dyeing yarn

If you want to try other forms of yarn-dyeing, you can find more inspiring free guides in our webshop. These include processes such as:

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