Self Striping Yarn

So I thought I'd give it a try. Got on web, read many directions on how to, found a warping board. Looked easy enough. DH set to work making me one. He's very willing and handy. By
yesterday morning, I had a lovely warping board that collapses down and comes apart when not in use. Great! Soaked the yarn for an hour or so with citric acid. Fine! Then wound it onto the pegs. Ooopps! Ever tried to wind or unwind wet yarn? Then figured out it is just to elongated the skein. What was I thinking? Trudge on. An hour or more later, since the yarn was hanging over the sink faucet and around a water bottle to unwind it, it was retied and ready for the dye. Chose to use the new Gaywool dye that I just got from Derryaun Crafts Olive, Iris and Wattle translated into Lt. Olive, Turquoise and Chartreuse. Cool. Mix up the dye , stretch out about 20 feet of cling film and apply colours. Roll up sausage, place in steamer and wait 30 minutes.














Let cool and dry, put back on the warping board (remember, 20+ feet of skein) and begin to wind onto the swift. Swift is a wooden umbrella-like thing that twirles around as the ball winder unwinds it into a ball. Anyway, at 5:45pm it was back into a normal size skein. No wonder people charge so much for self striping sock yarn. Maybe I missed a major short cut, but man is it time consuming!! I do like the look of it and will take it to Donegal on holiday next week. Here is the finished product. Need practice on making pretty skeins though.