Back in 2013 I bought a bag of 10 x 100g undyed sock yarn. So I opened up the bag and was going to do some sock blanks and see if I could sell them. 10 is a lot. Then I got side tracked with jellybean dyeing.
I bought a $2 bag of jelly beans from Reject Shop. I already did the sock blanks, 2 ends, T10 on the KX. 80 sts, with a dropped stitch in the centre. and off I went to jellybean dye them.
For both I put down a towel and put a long strip of plastic wrap down to lay the blank on it. I wanted to do stripes. and on the other side I did random plonked on.
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| Don't use the natural coloured ones, The cheap ones are best. |
First batch was a but underdone I squeezed out too much water and didn't sort out the colours first so I didn't realise that there was a dark pink and a red, so they got mixed up,
I started at the red end and used the towel to start the roll up all the way to the end. I didn't want the colours bleeding into the top, so there's layer of plastic all the way through.
I microwaved for 4 mins on high and took it out straight away. Unwrapped and splashed the vinegar around, rinsed, washed and it came out with the colours not through all the layers. Here they are, all wrapped up, before and after.
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| The unwrapped first experiment |
For the next one, I sorted out all the colours first, then cut all the jelly beans into two and put them cut side up, in stripes, both sides, just like the first one. I put the cut black ones right along both the edges. I also chopped up three or four pinks and sprinkled them on the dropped bit. I was pleased with that idea too.
I left the blank a lot wetter and pritzed the jelly beans with some more water before I wrapped them up, same as before.. I microwaved for 2 mins then turned it over. had a cup of coffee and did another 2 mins. I could have done 2 more I think, next time.
Here's the second batch halfway through, with a much better saturation of both ends and the unwrapped blank, after it's vinegar bath, followed by a eucalyptus wash.
Over on Ravelry we have a whole thread on playing around with this in the Sock Blank Artists Group. And here's the second sock, and the tiny bit left over. And here's the second one, with the colours much more vivid. I like both.
