Hand-dyed Self-striping yarn

I loves me some self-striping sock yarn.  I loved Knit Picks Felici yarn but only got to use it once before it was gone for good.  And it wasn't even a pair of socks for me :(  They went to my eldest spawn.

The saddest part is that I never got to use the Rainbow Striped colorway and I love rainbows.  The colors are the happiest colors together and it is hard to feel down when wearing rainbows!!!!  Even on the rainiest or coldest of days.

So off to the interwebs to find myself ideas on how to dye self-striping rainbow yarn!!!!  I have dyed a few solids and variegated yarns with food coloring.  I was quite pleased with the results.  So one Sunday morning, I spent searching for tutorials, tips etc.

Quite a few had you wrapping your yarn around chairs throughout your house.  Ummm.....one kitten, one elderly cat who turns into a kitten when Mommy is using yarn and two children make this seem daunting.  Nope!  Not for me.

So I came across warping boards that are used in weaving being used to wrap the yarn into segments.  ooooooo.......and then searched for how to build my own.  Or more appropriately, show my husband the idea and have HIM build it for me.

He was game.  Happy wife equals happy life.  And the family was off to Home Depot!  He asked me many questions.  Too many for my wee brain to handle with the girls playing with wood and saws in Home Depot.  SAWS!!!  But he persevered and got what he felt we needed.  Shopping complete and the girls with all their limbs still attached, we were on our way.  WEEEEEEEEE

Drum roll please!!!!

It allows for up to six different colors.  And of course, I jumped right in and wrapped the yarn and dyed Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple.  In hindsight, perhaps going for six color stripes for my first set of self-striping socks was a bit ambitious.  But hey, go big or go home!!!

It worked.  I have come up with other ideas.  The original wrapping suggested had me very confused on how to position the yard and undoing the dried yarn was a disaster.  It took most of a morning just sitting and untangling the yarn.  Some boards have another series of holes to place the dried yarn back on as it will have shrunk a bit.

Presenting my first pair of self-striping yarn

I am very happy with them.  Next set of yarn, I will wrap less rotations per color to narrow out the striping.  Actually may do the more scientific method of knitting a few rounds to see where I am happy and then undo and measure to get the precise number of wraps.