hand painted vs dyed?

[Wrennie]

What exactly is the difference between hand painted and hand dyed yarn?

[Raine59]

Well I'm not an expert but I will try to answer your question. I've done a lot of dyeing of crochet thread but not so much yarn, but the idea is the same. Hand painting is just a type of hand dyeing that you would use if you want to have a variegated effect rather than a solid color. If the whole hank of yarn is to be the same color, you could just put the whole thing in a container of dye mixture and it all comes out the same color. But it is still hand dyed. But if you want a given hank to have several colors within one hank, you need to apply different colors of dyes to different parts of the hank. You can apply it with a squeeze bottle (this is what I do) or "paint" it on with a bristle or foam brush, or just pour a little out of a cup, and this is sometimes called hand painted. I think in general the term "hand-dyed" just means yarn or thread that is dyed at home on a small scale as opposed to in a factory.

[DogCatMom]

Here's the link to an on-line article from Knitty.com on how to hand-dye/hand-paint yarn. Hand-painting is *much more* fiddly than simply hand-dyeing it.

 

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring07/FEATdyeyourown.html

 

DCM

[Wrennie]

Thanks!