Ho Ho Hectic Holidays

Wow, it's been very busy here as I'm sure it has been everywhere. Finally finished with all the Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, school parties, Christmas concerts, mailing parcels etc . Just a few odds and ends now to finish up. I just cannot seem to stop knitting these slipper socks....they're so quick, easy, (and forgiving due to the felting process). I had it on my list to make a yellow pair for a swap and had absolutely no luck in finding the right colour. So I ended up dying two balls of cream coloured Bernat merino into a mottled cream and yellow. I had always wanted to try koolaid dying, but at this time could not find any yellow coloured flavours........so the koolaid dyeing is still on my to do list...for someday! So....I bought a packet of yellow Rit dye and with some hints from a library book unrolled the ball and wound it into a skein. Once in a skein, I took plastic wrap cut about4-8 inches wide and wrapped them the yarn at random places. At either end of the plastic wrap covering the yarn, I tied the ends of the plastic wrap down with 6 inch lengths of acrylic yarn to hopefully stop the dye from transferring to the plastic covered areas. So it was kind of like tie dying. Then I dissolved the dye packet into hot simmering (not boiling) water and submerged the two skeins. I actually had to add more water to be able to submerge both skeins. After gently poking at the yarn to make sure it all submerged for 30 minutes, I removed them to the sink and rinsed them several times to remove excess dye. You needed to be careful not to agitate the yarn too much or it would start to felt. After squeezing the excess water out with an old towel, I let it set by the fire to dry until the next day.
Then I rolled it into a ball with a ball winder I just happened to have in the basement. I was very happy with the way the yarn patterned up with the cream and yellow, and even happier with the overall result after felting in the washing machine. I did have some concern that the yellow dye would get washed out in the hot water felting process in the washing machine.
There was a little loss of dye into the wash water, but no noticeable loss in the colour of the knitted item. Thank goodness. I had a spare packet of yellow dye just in case I needed to redye the slippers afterwards, but there was no need. They turned out a very happy yellow indeed. I also finished felting up the (purple/blue/turquoise)Lion Brand wool slippers I had shown here. And was much happier with the look of the colours after the felting was done.