It's been about a month now since I started my mason jar of madder, alum and a Hitch Hiker scarf knitted in bare yarn. This weekend, I decided that I could not wait any longer and liberated my scarf into the kitchen sink where I rinsed and rinsed until I could roll out the excess, clear running water and hang it up to dry.

Keeping an eye on the jar during this process is like watching gifts appear under the Christmas tree. Just about every day I would get home from work, lean in for a good look and then grab it and give it a good shake to mix up the undissolved dye sediment. The water wasn't quite clear when I made the decision that it was done, but I think I may have used too much dye to begin with and it was definitely soaking up into the outer layer of yarn.

As I mentioned in my original post when I started this project, the garment was a little large for the jar that it was in so I was expecting a somewhat splotchy outcome. The resulting pattern of color is quite beautiful, with a dark rusty hue in the most saturated parts and a light gold on the parts that were obviously in the center of the scarf when it was rolled up in the jar.

I must say, I am so addicted to this new hobby! New bare yarn is on the way, so I'm going to try this process with skeins and THEN knit with it! I would also like to try using materials that I foraged or at least something that I collected/bought and prepared myself.

Have you tried any solar dyeing or even natural dyeing? How did it turn out?

Since I had a few other projects going on concurrently, it took me a while to finish this hitch hiker shawl that was part of a knit-along with the Instagram-along-ers Ravelry group. Normally I take "off the needles" photos of a finished object styled and worn, but I did not do that with this one... because it's not finished yet!

Recently, I featured Caitlin Ffrench for the first post of the "Fiber Is..." column, and she just happened to have an article on solar dyeing in this summer's issue of Knit Scene. When I started the shawl it was a last minute thing and I wanted to use some yarn from my stash. For whatever reason I had some bare merino that would work perfectly. Earlier in the year I made the herringbone cowl in a natural hue though, and didn't really want another scarf of the same color. The solar dyeing tutorial seemed like a great way to try out something new and also add some color to my finished shawl.

For Christmas I received the Earthhues natural dyeing kit from my parents, which is available through Knit Picks. Stovetop dyeing has been high on my list of things to learn for a while, but my kitchen isn't exactly ideal for large projects like that and it just seems really daunting. Once I read through Caitlin's solar dyeing tutorial, I felt that this seemed a little more manageable for my first attempt at natural dyeing. If you don't have a copy of the magazine yet, I really encourage you to pick it up. There are some really cute patterns in it as well!

I used alum and madder for my shawl, which should come out to be a deep gold/orange color when it's finished. Even after a couple of days it looks like some of the color has soaked up into the fiber. Since it's a finished garment rather than a skein of yarn, I'm not sure exactly how it will look when it's done. However, I like imperfections and variegation in solids, so it won't bother me a bit if it comes out a little splotchy. Note to self: get some bigger jars for next time.

Have you tried any solar dyeing? I'm really addicted now and fully intend to start several more jars as soon as I can get my hands on some skeins of natural yarn. What are your favorite natural dye combinations?