Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece: Custom-Color Your Favorite Fibers with Dip-Dyeing, Hand-Painting, Tie-Dyeing, and Other Creative Techniques

No crafter should feel limited by the yarn colors available in a favorite fiber shop — not when it's so fun and satisfying to hand-dye yarn and fleece right in the kitchen. Ultimate color control is now within the reach of anyone who loves yarn and fleece.

In Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece, self-taught dyer Gail Callahan uses fiber, color, and heat to create exciting new yarns and yarn colors. Her recipe-style instructions lead readers through a variety of simple techniques that turn plain or outdated yarns into colorful fibers, customized by color and quantity for the project at hand. And there are even eight projects for knitters eager to use their new yarns.

Standard kitchen equipment is all that's needed to set up a kitchen dye shop. Dyeing can be done in a microwave oven, a sturdy stovetop kettle, a crockpot, a traditional oven, or even an electric frying pan — Callahan covers every method.

Dyeing doesn't end with the simpler singlecolor methods. Adventurous crafters will find instructions for designing self-striping and multicolored yarns with dip-dyeing, tie-dyeing hand-painting, and other inventive techniques. Detailed advice on color theory and types of dyes, including food colors and other "grocery store" dyes, make the entire process achievable for complete beginners.

A wonderful new skill that will appeal to enthusiastic knitters, crocheters, rug hookers, spinners, and weavers, hand dyeing is the next step in creating handmade fiber crafts from scratch.

Gail Callahan discovered weaving in the 1990's, leading her to a small business called The Kangaroo Weaver. A few years later, she began dyeing for personal use. The following year, Valley Yarns asked her to dye yarns exclusive to WEBS, America's Yarn Store, in Northampton, Massachusetts. She now teaches dyeing at WEBS, and continues to dye for them as well as for her own business, The Kangaroo Dyer.