Dying to get more colors

[Kitty]

It's a rainy day here in California. i crochet mainly in thread, and i have found only a limited number of colors for sale. Recently I discovered Sophie Digard, a designer of all things crochet ,she has the most beautiful, expensive scarfs she does in wool and linen yarns in gorgeous natural, subtle colors ! Lots of multi color beautys. I'm reading a description of a $300+ scarf in hand dyed linen thread, and my DUH-meter went off! I have these used tubes of acrylic paint from another hobby that i have used to paint on cotton fabric, and i buy white thread in jumbo size so i set out to dye my own cotton thread in all the subtle colors that Sophie uses. I have these plastic containers from my husbands diabetic test strips, they look like 35mm film cans with snap down lids, that i use to hold small amounts of thread to carry around in my purse for crocheting whenever. glass jar with a screw lid (for the dye water mix ) i use a brush to help dissolve the paint into the water.Also need rubber gloves.
I wrap the plastic container like a spool fastening the end with the cap. i put water to cover the spool in the jar , put a dab of paint in and dissolve it with the brush, put the spool in the jar , put the lid on and shake to saturate the thread with color. Here you need gloves, take the spool out of the jar and hang up the thread on the clothesline in long loops to dry with out getting stuck together. When it's dry, it should be color-fast . check it to be sure, i will be. It may be a while, did i mention it's raining here? DUH ! Anyway, i used yellow ochre,for dk. gold , then added in some raw umber and got a coffee with cream , and added thalo blue and got a dk forest green, there was a little dye water left so i added a lot of water and got a pastel grey-green like one of Sophies hand dyed subtle colors . I cant wait to be able to mix more new colors, and crochet with them, when they dry out. LOL Kitty

[OpalB]

Kitty - Thank you so much for your post. In the past I have crocheted doilies using white cotton thread, and have a large spool of unused thread just sitting on a shelf. For some time now I have been wondering if I could dye that thread using liquid fabric dye, but now I think I will follow your instructions for using the acrylic paints left over from a faux painting project. Will let you know how it turns out. Again, thank you.

[Kitty]

Be sure to dilute with 1/4 cup of water or the thread will be stiff.

[Kitty]

Thanks,OpalB. I got lighter colors than I expected but some nice in-between shades, dull gold, moss green, mint and grass green.Today I'll try some pinks and Browns.

[Nova55]

Oh, Kitty! I love thread too - and Sophie Digard! I also love your idea with the acrylic paint, but a couple questions. Do you have to do anything to make the thread colorfast? How well do the colors hold up with washing? Or would it be better to dry clean?

[Kitty]

I haven't tried washing the thread yet but I have used the paint on cotton cloth and it has been colorfast . Where I am using it in multicolored crochet if it bleeds a bit it won't be noticeable. It may also depend on the brand of paint you use. I have Blick brand paints.
I usually wash my crochet stuff by hand cold water or warm .

[Kitty]

Dont you love her sense of color ? So natural , and soft. I made peach, a couple of medium Shades of brown and denim, today.

[Nova55]

There's a couple older (now) scarves she did that I fell in love with. Photos are the SD Nitro Linen floral, my version of that, and the third photo I just call the SD Circles Scarf. I have the materials for the Circles scarf - my version, of course - and I'll probably start that soon. If I don't get distracted with something else first, of course. I have a horrible case of crochet adhd!

[Kitty]

You do beautiful work! I'm doing some circles now for a cowl scarf !! That's what I wanted a lot of colors for. It's a small world. I found some Australian Aboriginal dot paintings that look like Sophie's scarf, too. The big dot is my new 10 colors, and i washed it in warm water and Tide with no color shedding . S.D. scarf on left, dot painting on right by Wawiriya Burton.

[Kitty]

I'm kinda the opposite, crochet OCD , i get stuck on a pattern and have to finish it. the big projects turn into the summer i crocheted on (whatever it was). I sometimes see an item i'd love to do , and by the time i get back to it i've lost whatever the inspiration was.