Dying Soy-Acrylic Yarn

Quite a while ago, maybe a year or more, Bernat surprised me by coming out with a line of new acrylic blends. One of them was Soy, which is 50% soy and 50% acrylic. It’s a little thinner than worsted weight and has a nice feel to it, but unfortunately, the colours are blah. Off-white, beige, pale green, pale blue, pale pink. Nice for babies maybe, but not for me. I had bought some of the beige yarn (called Flax), and currently it’s an unfinished scarf that I’ll probably add other colours to. I mostly bought it because I wanted to try it.

Someone online asked about dying it, and no one had a good answer. You can dye soy yarn, but this isn’t a 100% soy. The acrylic hampers it’s ability to take dye from acid-based dyes. But, I did read that if there is a high enough percentage of natural fiber (the soy) it will take some dye.

So, armed with a tutorial from knitty.com, 1 skein (2.5 oz) of Oatmeal (off-white) yarn, 3 packets of kool-aid (Lemon-Lime, then Grape. I’ll put a picture of the Lemon-Lime one last), a microwave and a microwave-safe dish, I began. Here’s what I did:

1 - Unwravel the yarn into a loose skein and tie it off. The first time I did this when using the green, I went for about 1 oz of yarn, but tied a little too tight. It ended up variegated as a result. My second time, I had about 1.5 oz (and used 2 packets of grape). I tried twisting it into a hank instead, but that also resulted in white spots. This is my issue, though, it is possible to dye a solid colour if you have the yarn bundled properly.

2 - Wash the yarn in cool water with mild soap, rinse, and let it sit in cool water while you do step 3.

3 - Using a microwave-safe bowl (I used a glass Pyrex container) pour in the kool aid, then add a cup or two of water. Stir until it dissolves, add the yarn, then enough water so that the yarn is covered. Then put it in the microwave for two minutes. (It can also be done on the stovetop. The important point, from what I understand, is not to let the water come to a boil.)

4 - Remove from microwave, gently flip the yarn over with a utensil, let it sit for 3 minutes. Repeat. You want to be very careful not to overheat. The first time I kept heating it up, having misread the directions. I heard crackling in the microwave, like I had put in rice. The acrylic changed texture. It soaked up all the dye still, but the yarn was no longer the same, it was like thick/thin yarn. So, for the grape, I heated twice, let it sit for 30 minutes, heated it again for 2 minutes, then let it sit for 30 minutes

6 - Rinse the yarn with water close to the temp of the water the yarn was sitting in, rinse, wash with mild soap. Keep rinsing the yarn with cool water until the dye doesn’t come out anymore. You can test this easily by putting water in a dish, placing the yarn in the water and squishing it down. If the water remains clear, you’re done.

7 - Hang the yarn up to dry. I did this with a hanger on a shower rod. If you get impatient, you can blowdry it for a while, too.

Now, because I did the hank too tightly with the purple, this created white spots, and also blueish spots between the white and the purple. I was disappointed at first, but while I didn’t get the solid that I was going for, it’s still pretty:

I don’t know what I’m going to do with the green. Not only did I change the texture, the green ended up too light. Here it is on the hanger: