Socks and Indigo

I have been trying to finish a sock order that I got last week: 2 pairs of natural, 2 pairs of Cochineal and one pair of Indigo. I dyed the Cochineal wool yarn last weekend.

Today I finished knitting them. Now they are wet and on the sock stretchers.

Now I just have the one pair Indigo to go. I put on a dye pot of Indigo last weekend. I thought it was ready to go on Saturday and tried to dye a pound of wool yarn. Everything looked like it was going well until the rinse after the dyeing. Almost all of the Indigo washed out.



I can't use that yarn for the socks - it is just too light. Not a good quality bath at all. I know I'll end up redyeing the wool.

So, I put more Indigo in the dye bath, added more lye water, and we'll let it set a few more days to see how it does. After only one Indigo bath previously, I am certainly not an expert and I guess I should expect some batches that don't go well.