How to Paint the Yarn Skeins

Now that you have mixed your dye and prepared the skeins for painting, grab your trusty foam brush. You may need to apply extra dye to the brush to fully cover some segments of the skein. You can experiment with coverage.

1Saturate a foam brush with dye solution. Use short downward strokes to apply the first band of color.

The dye will not completely penetrate to the side of the skein facing down on the table. Don’t worry; you will eventually turn the skein over to paint the other side.

2Paint the next band of color, using a fresh brush for the second color.

Leave a small white space between color bands so as not to contaminate the brush.

3Continue painting 6-inch segments of color, working your way around the skein’s circumference. Maintain the color pattern—Mulberry, Plum, Rust—without changing the color sequence.

As the foam brushes make contact with the wet fiber, they absorb water. To avoid diluting the dye solution, press the brush into a dry rag or paper towel to blot after applying color to yarn.

Wipe up any drips or excess dye that runs from the skeins with a sponge.

4Carefully lift the skein from one end.

If there is a pool of dye beneath the skein, wipe it away with a paper towel.

5Gently flip the skein over and paint the other side.

Apply color with foam brushes following the same sequence.

6Go back and gently touch up the white spaces where two colors meet.

You can use a small syringe for this step.

7Wipe up any excess dye from the plastic wrap with a sponge.

Blot the skein with paper towels to absorb any excess dye.

8Create a packet by folding the ends of the plastic inward over the skein’s ends and then folding the plastic lengthwise over the skein’s sides. Do this for the top and bottom.

To keep the color bands from making contact with each other, press down on the plastic to form a seal in the center between the two halves of the skein. Follow the same steps for the remaining skeins, folding each into its own plastic packet.

9Loosely roll each packet from end to end.

Now the skeins are ready for steaming.