A long while ago KnitCrate* had a dye class. I bought it, but between planning my wedding, my honeymoon, and an international move I never got around to actually doing it. When they brought out a shiny new learn to dye class a few months ago I was ecstatic, especially since it was being done by Rebecca from ChemKnits.

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Since I didn’t do the first class I can’t compare new KnitCrate to old KnitCrate as I did in the knitting kit; however, I have been doing a Craftsy class on yarn dyeing so at least I have another class for some comparison.

The Videos

Like the other kits, the videos are free on YouTube. They’re good quality and very ChemKnits-y which I’m a fan of. It’s good to have a free resource, but I feel like this isn’t what you’re paying for, so we’ll move on.

The Kits

In each kit, you get two skeins of yarn, gloves, dye accompaniments (citric acid, squeeze bottles), and zip ties for your yarn.

The first month is a sport weight, the second a sock, and the third a sparkly sock. It’s well known that I like KnitCrate yarns and I found these to be really good quality. They’re all mainly merino superwash and just feel good.

The kits are good, but it is important to note that unlike the knitting and crochet you can’t just get the box and go. Acid dyes are safe but you do need a dedicated dye pot, dedicated dye utensils, a scale, and a mask. It’s not the most expensive thing but it all definitely adds up. Since I don’t live in the city I grew up in and thrift shops are still closed for me it meant getting my dye set up as mostly new stuff.

I ended up improvising with things like tin foil instead of a steamer basket. It was a bit dodgy but it worked. Also, getting a proper respiratory mask was a bit of a struggle given the climate but I waited patiently until things restocked and managed to find a good one. I also use eye protection because I hate getting stuff in my eye.

The dye itself is by Jacquard and the kit comes with full sizes- I have plenty of dye leftover. You get the primaries (red, blue, yellow), the CYM (cyan, yellow, magenta), a darker yellow, a brown, a grey, and a black.

The Instructions

The instructions are really well done. The video is clear and having the written instructions while you work is amazing. There’s definitely a big emphasis on experimentation and customization. Also, it’s nice that having fun with your project is the top priority.

The only gripe I have is that the kits came with citric acid and the instructions use vinegar. There’s an acknowledgement of this but no instructions for substitution. I’ve done a lot of research and found complicated but completely different formulas. The best advice I found was to get pH strips and actually measure out the acidity of the water. I couldn’t get my hands on them so I essentially just guessed.

I mean, I didn’t essentially guess. I completely guessed. I full-on poured some in and was like, sure.

I also love that Rebecca uses mostly metric for a lot of her measurements.

The Projects

The first month is a semi-solid. I did mostly red with a pinch of blue. I adore how this yarn came out. I literally can’t wait to start working with it. This kind of berry/wine colour is my absolute favourite to wear and I already have a scarf pattern picked.

The second month is variegated yarn. Now, let it be stated that I am not the biggest fan of variegated yarn. I like the idea of it but I find I just don’t reach for stuff I’ve made with it. The only place I use it is in socks, so this was fine.

I took a bit more of a handpainted, some would say Pollock-esque approach to this that turned out a lot different than her yarn. I’m happy with mine and, most importantly, I had a lot of fun. One day I will learn to properly dye variegated yarn… though I would also like to make the case that variegated is exactly how you’d describe this yarn.

The third month was speckled on a sparkly sock base. For me, speckled is the same deal as variegated where I like the idea of it and I like looking at the pretty yarn on the shelf but I only really like it on socks.

My concept for this yarn was walking through a baroque castle at night in a really gorgeous swishy dress and catching glimpses of the gold in the black. I did not want any white patches because that’s just not how I roll.

What I did was throw dye at the yarn in a very unorganized way. What I should have done was dye the yarn a semi-solid yellow then speckled it with black and just omitted the grey altogether. A part of me wants to make socks out of this for the memory, another part of me just wants to completely overdye it black.

Would I recommend this?

Yes, absolutely. I think this is the closest to what I was expecting these KnitCrate classes to be.

I think that the quality of this can be summed up in two facts:

I was able to look at the third month’s yarn and figure out where and how I went wrong and make a reasonable guess at how to do it again to get the results I want.

I am still dyeing yarn.

Now, I’m dyeing yarn with another class, but that’s more my confidence issues than issues on part of KnitCrate. I just like to be extra sure of what I’m doing before I go off on my own.

All up, I just had a tonne of fun. Like, top three fun things I did in lockdown and all tied for first. And that, is the most important thing.

I also did a video on this!