A Foxy Orange

I wanted to create the Failynn Fox Cowl for Lucky as soon as I saw it.  This design is a fox eared hood with a cowl, a hat and scarf combined.   When I got some Tuff Puff for my stash from KnitPicks I knew this single ply fluffy yarn would be the perfect yarn for a fluffy hooded cowl.  Unfortunately the yarn didn't have an orange that would work for a fox, so I decided to dye some of the white yarn to get the color I wanted.  Plus, this would give me a chance to create a new dyeing video!  

I need white for one section of the cowl (the construction will be shared in another post).  Before dyeing the yarn, I decided to knit up the inner ears so that I would know I would have enough white yarn. However, looking at the pattern it looks like the ears are knit as one piece, not as a separate inner and outer ear.  I will therefore estimate I would hate to run short on the orange and end up needing to try to match a color of yarn!  

The pattern says that I will only need 125 yards of orange for the toddler size garment (160 yards for child size).  I purchased 5 balls of Tuff Puff at 44 yards each.  Dyeing 4 balls of yarn and saving one white ball should be PLENTY.   Time for a deep breath.

44 Yards is short enough that I won't need a swift to wind it up.  I wound the skeins over my arm to make them into easier to dye segments.

In a large dyebath with many cups of water and <4t 100="" 10="" 200="" 30="" added="" and="" approximately="" coloring="" drops="" dry="" dye="" exhausted="" food="" for="" fter="" green="" had="" i="" mccormick="" minutes="" most="" nbsp="" of="" p="" ready="" red="" rinse="" s="" simmering="" the="" to="" vinegar="" was="" white="" yarn.="" yellow="">

There was one problem.  I wasn't 100% satisfied with the depth of color.  I used 210 drops of food coloring on 400 g of fiber.  I would have doubled the dye while it was still in the pot but I had run out of red food coloring.  Therefore I decided to overdye the fiber.  

For Dyeing Take 2 I presoaked the yarn in a new water/vinegar mixture (4T vinegar in the canning pot) and removed the fiber to add the food coloring.  This time I added 100 drops red, 100 drops yellow and 20 drops of green food coloring.

FINALLY I had the deep orange that would be appropriate for a fox!  Check out more on my process in the video below.