Life of the Lintee Bean

I’m writing my column late at night because I was dying this weekend! It’s true! Some time back, I got some yarn dye from my friend Heather in a swap.  She even included some white cotton yarn for practice. I forced myself to wait until after my niece’s wedding to play with it, knowing it was highly likely I’d dye myself as well as the yarn. The wedding is over, so it’s time to play with color!

Yarn and dye received in swap

I decided not only to dye the white practice cotton, but some lightweight white rayon chenille.  The chenille was really pretty. Chenille is furry, so this yarn reminded me of a delicate white caterpillar.  However, I thought it’d be nicer in a color other than white.

Lightweight white rayon chenille yarn

I generally skip reading instructions, but this time I felt it prudent to pull them out. The whole first section was on preparing your work area. It was very elaborate, with plastic bags and paper towels and whatnot. I decided I could skip all that, and I’d just dye the yarn in the bathtub. I pulled on gloves and added water to the powder dye. Then I decided the rest of the instructions probably weren’t all that important. Time for the fun part – making the white yarn pretty blue and green!

I’d hanked the yarn into long ovals.  I lay the yarn in the bathtub and started saturating it with color. Once I ran out of prepared dye, I wrapped the yarn in plastic and discovered I probably should have prepared my work area.  My bathtub is now blue and green.

The yarn sat in the plastic all day, while I waited anxiously. Finally, I started rinsing out the dye. I rinsed and rinsed – but the yarn still dripped blue-green. I carefully washed with soap – still “bleeding” dye. I decided to wind the hanks of yarn tight, put them in lingerie bags, and in the washing machine.

Forty-five minutes later, it’s way past my bedtime, but I think the yarn is probably done bleeding. I thought maybe I’d give the drying process a head-start in the clothes dryer first. I’m not sure if you’re supposed to put rayon chenille in a clothes dryer, but I’m just drying until still a bit damp, and it’s in a lingerie bag, surely it’ll be okay. I put it in the dryer on “less dry”, and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke early, excited to check out my gorgeous blue-green yarn. I took the yarn out of the dryer and pulled it out of the lingerie bags. The cotton looked pretty good! I’ll hang it to dry as it’s still a bit damp. The hank had gotten a bit wonky, so I re-hanked it. I’d missed several spots that were still white. That’s okay, it’ll be white and blue and green, it’s still pretty.

Cotton yarn - now blue and green (with white spots)

The rayon was another matter. I pulled out the hank, and stared. Not only did it also have white spots, it had shrunk to the size of a doughnut. I started re-hanking. The yarn was tangled. REALLY tangled. How did that happen?

Lightweight rayon chenille - now blue and green (with white spots) - and SMALL

Four hours later, I was still untangling and hanking the rayon. Since chenille is fuzzy, the strands all grabbed on to one another and resisted being untangled. It was a pretty blue-green MESS.

Nine hours later, I take a break for a late lunch. I’m breaking off some of the delicate furry bits in my efforts to detangle the yarn, and I’m covered with blue-green fuzz. I also have blue-green fuzz tickling the inside of my nose.

FOURTEEN hours later, I’ve finished hanking the yarn. Well, most of it. Some sections I’ve broken off in frustration. I also have knots where I broke or cut the yarn in my efforts and had to tie it back together.  I don’t know what I’ll make out of the yarn.  I do want to dye other yarn, as I liked the dying part – just not the detangling part.  Maybe next time I’ll follow the directions.

Submitted for publication in the Greeley Citizen