Dyeing Help! PANIC!!!!

#1

Depths of despair!!! I dyed some yarn yellow. Knit a beautiful sweater. The whole time the yellow bled onto my hands but it was too late. I finished with the hope that I could just wash it after and drain the excess dye. Soooo stupid in retrospect… (Before, I filled the sink with warm water and put in more vinegar hoping that it would set.) Then. Doom.
New sink of water with a dollop of soap – ALL my dye washed straight out!!! AAhhhhh. Can I re-dye!?! I can’t give up on this sweater. What should I do?

Thanks in advance,
Hope

#2

Welcome to the forum!
We don’t have questions about dyeing yarn come up very often. Perhaps @mullerslanefarm can help with a suggestion for you.
Is the yarn wool, acrylic, something else?
Can you knit a test swatch, wash it and then try re-dyeing? Measure it to account for any size changes.

#3

Oh No!!!

Do you know what was the fiber content of the yarn? There are different dyes for different types of fibers.

Bast fiber (cotton, linen, rayon, etc) take a different dye than protein fiber (wool, silk, nylon, wool, etc). If you are working with an acrylic yarn than there is nothing you can use to dye it. Plastic just doesn’t take up dye. The dye will coat the yarn, but it will quickly wear off or wash off.

Not sure what type of fiber you have? You can try a burn test to see if you can identify it.

https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/Burn-Test-Chart.html

Good luck!

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