Amy Reader is a fibre artist based in Portland, OR. She learned to sew when she was six years old and quickly fell in love with textiles of all kinds. With the help of her grandmother, Amy learned to knit and crochet shortly thereafter. Amy started dyeing with kitchen safe dyes and was immediately hooked. She loves working with bold and playful colors and primarily dyes yarn for her line of hand-embroidered jewelry.
There are so many different ways to dye up a skein of yarn. One of my personal favorites is a slow cooker. The heat source is included and the bowl is nice and deep, giving your yarn plenty of room for even dye saturation. Slow cookers are also easy to pick up at a thrift […]
Read more
Food coloring is a great introduction to dyeing your own yarn. Food coloring is nontoxic and kitchen safe, easy to acquire, and dyes up the most beautiful color! I started out dyeing with food coloring because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to fully commit a set of kitchen utensils to dyeing, so I wanted […]
Read more
Purple is one of my favorite colors to work with! I primarily use my dyed yarn for embroidery work, but I do crochet and knit for fun on occasion too. When I am making things just for fun, I always find myself drawn towards shades of purple. Figuring out which purple is best can sometimes […]
Read more
As we head toward the summer, I was wanting to dye up something in a fun mix of colors. I’ve been thinking about crocheting again and had the idea to dye up some yarn with a mix of colors, some softer and some with brighter pops of color throughout. That is how the watercolor confetti […]
Read more
Spring is here and that means fresh green grass, flowers peeking their heads out of the earth, and new leaves growing on trees. One of the best sources for color inspiration, in my opinion, is out in nature. Today we are dyeing up a cozy, mossy green inspired by the beautiful greens found in the […]
Read more
Speckles add such a fun dimension to any hand-dyed yarn. The pops of color peek through like little confetti adding cheer to anything you create. Today on the blog we are going to be dyeing up two skeins of EGRET with warm, sunrise-inspired speckles in a slow cooker. Two skeins is a great quantity of […]
Read more
Ombré is when color is shaded or graduated in tone – which means it transitions from dark to light. This is a beautiful effect in yarn that can often work up to create stripes and pools of color in knit and crochet. Today on the blog we are going to be dyeing up a purple […]
Read more
Acid dyes are versatile, vibrant, and straightforward. The category “acid dye” is broad and simply refers to dye that sets in an acidic environment. In yarn dyeing, that means adding citric acid or white vinegar to a dye bath. Acid dyes only work on protein fibres, which are wool fibres derived from animal sources. You […]
Read more
Multicolor yarn is so fun to work with and relatively easy to achieve. One of the ways to achieve cheerful, multicolor yarn is to pool color in a shallow dye bath. Adding one color at a time gives you control over the color placement. Keeping the water shallow keeps the pigment in sections making the […]
Read more
Turmeric is a bright golden spice that you can find in most grocery stores. It is commonly used in curries and recently in golden milk. If you have ever cooked with it, you probably know that it stains bright gold very easily. This staining effect can be used to our advantage to create a beautiful […]
Read more
