Ooh it’s yarn now
I put a vegetable steamer in the bottom of the pan and then filled the pan with water, so yarn wouldn’t rest directly over the heat. I’d read that green cotton needs some alkaline action in order for the color to develop fully so first I tried using a little homemade soap.
It darkened just a shade, but not enough for my tastes so I added about 2 teaspoons raw soda ash to the solution.
That seemed to work nicely. I think I could have gotten a more intense green if I’d been willing to make the water a little more alkaline, but since this is my very first cotton yarn I wanted to play it safe.
I’ve read that I can redevelop the color if I need to, or even force it to fade back to the off-white color using UV light and a mild acid solution. I’d planned on using the yarn for a lace cardigan, but I’m not sure that I want to wear a garment that acts like litmus paper.
I hate to admit this, but I’m working on spinning a second batch of this yarn. I think I can deal with the time consuming nature of cotton spinning now that I actually can see and drool over the results.
it’s very pretty!
The homemade soap would not be be nearly enough and this proved it. The colors are excellent and I would love to see your results using more a more alaline solution.