I've been wanting to give yarn dyeing a try for quite a while. I 100% blame the many podcasts I watch and their beautiful hand dyed yarns. It seems so fun to experiment with different colors and techniques. And if I lived in a house, you bet your booty I would have gone whole hog on this idea. However, I live in a studio apartment with my fiance so there isn't really any room for a whole bunch of dyeing equipment or bare yarn. So I put the idea to the back of my head for when we have a larger home. Then, last Wednesday, I was browsing through instagram and saw that a local fiber place was having a dye night. I signed up immediately and figured that this would be a good time to see if I'd like dyeing without a large amount of money or commitment. The location was Steel City Fiber Collective and they are great! They have a small shop portion but most of their space is dedicated to equipment. They explained they are like a gym for fiber people. You can pay a monthly membership fee or purchase a day pass and have access to spinning wheels, looms, a dye room, etc. You can test out different spinning wheels to find the type you like the most before purchasing your own wheel. If you're light on free space (like me) you can use their equipment instead.
They also hold a number of classes each month that aren't just knitting or crochet oriented. They're having an applique class where you learn about hand sewing appliques onto a dish towl and when you're done, you'll have a nice new towl to show off! The dye night I attended is held the first Friday of every month. They just opened in June and are very open to any ideas and suggestions for classes or events.
For this dye night, it was just myself and two other ladies who were not fiber crafters. They give you the option of dyeing a skein of sock yarn, silk scarf, or silk tie. The other ladies picked scarves, I wanted that yarn! They have everything all set up for you when you arrive and there are so many colors they give you pre-mixed, but they also give you a few empty bottles for if you want to mix your own colors. After some brief instructions, they turned us loose onto our projects. I decided to go with a speckled / splotchy sort of look. In the pictures, the blue looks like a very true blue but in reality, it is more turquoise. It is sock yarn with 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon so this will probably become either socks or mittens.
The staff at the Fiber Collective are very nice, welcoming, and well experienced in fiber crafts. It was a fun 2 hours on a Friday night and now I know that I'd love to dye more frequently. Although I did decide to stick with food safe dyes for now so that I don't need new pots and other equipment.
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