How to hand-dye a skein to make it solid-coloured

If you want to try out hand-dyeing yarn, but you don’t quite know where to begin, then this guide is perfect. It is super fun to hand-dye your own yarn, but it is always a good idea to read some tips and advice before pulling out the batik colour dye and the yarn. In the guide below, you will find lots of useful tips and tricks on how to transform regular skeins to beautiful solid-coloured yarn with the help of colour dye and a microwave.

You can also check out our guides for grad-dyeing yarn and multicoloured/speckled yarn dyeing if you want more inspiration for lovely yarn dyeing.

What you need

• 1 bowl
• 1 measuring cup
• White vinegar
• 1 microwave + 1 bowl suitable for microwave use
• Microwave cling film – important that it is suitable for microwave use
• 1 skein – e.g. IH Baby Merino
• Jute thread – See Jute thread
• Batik colour dye – See Batik colour dye/textile colour
• Disposable gloves or cleaning gloves
• Eucalan wool wash – See Wool wash

Instructions

1) Tie jute thread around the yarn. Tie at least 2 threads to ensure that you can control the skein during the colouring process. You can also tie 4 threads to make the skein even easier to control once it is dry.

2) Soak the yarn in an acid bath. The proportion is 0,3 cup of white vinegar per 1,2 cups of water for minimum half an hour. Do not pour out the acid bath.

3) While the yarn is soaking, prepare the colour mix. Don’t be afraid to play around and experiment. In the examples below we have used the following:

• IH Baby Merino Colour 34 + Brilliant blue (5 tablespoons of colour and 0,6 cups of water)
• IH Baby Merino Colour 04 + Green (5 tablespoons of colour and 0,6 cups of water)
• IH Baby Merino Colour 07 + Lilac (5 tablespoons of colour and 0,6 cups of water)
• IH Baby Merino Colour 06 + Pink (7 drops of colour and 0,6 cups of water)
• IH Baby Merino Colour 06 + Corn yellow (7 drops of colour and 0,6 cups of water)

As you can see from the skeins above, you can achieve very different results depending on how dark the skein is to begin with and the amount of colour you mix into to the water.

4) Pick the yarn up from the acid bath, wring it slightly and put it into the colour mix. Keep an eye on the yarn and leave it there until you think it is done. Turn it while it soaks. The examples above have been soaking between 3 and 10 minutes. Please note that the colour of the yarn may graduate.

5) Pick up the skein and place it in a bowl suited for microwave use. Don’t forget to wear gloves.

6) Cover the bowl with cling film for microwave use. Make sure that the film covers the bowl completely.

7) The yarn is now heated up 3 times. Each round lasts 2 minutes at 900 W. Open the microwave between each heating to ventilate. Make sure that the cling film still covers the bowl completely.

8) Take out the bowl – Be careful, it’s hot! Remove the cling film and pour out excess colour.

9) Place the skein in the acid bath again for approximately half an hour.

10) Prepare a bath with lukewarm water and Eucalan wool wash. Wash the skein and then rinse it with cold water until the water is clear.

11) Hang the skein to dry. Please note that it may take some time for the yarn to be completely dry.

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:

• Grad-dyeing yarn
• Multicoloured/speckled yarn dyeing
• Hand-dyeing yarn with batik colour dye in the microwave