Stinky Black Bean Yarn

So a few weeks ago I made black beans and decided to use the soaking water to dye yarn. Mind you, my (well) water is hard and so the final color of the yarn most likely will be different than had I used rain, or distilled water.

I used a ball of (hand- spun, sport- weight) yarn- thinking that the yarn away from the center would be darker, while the yarn close to the center would be light (lazy ombre). Well, OK; I also felt a bit lazy…

Life got busy- as it tends to around my place- and I kind of forgot about the yarn. Well, I plain old forgot the yarn- until my oldest child asked what smelled near the pasta maker. It was the yarn, in all it’s farty goodness (farty because of the fermenting black bean odor)!

I took the yarn out of the stinky water and put it in fresh water. I changed the rinse water several times and then left it alone- and forgot about it again.

Today was a blah kind of day; it was one of those days when I just felt out- of- sorts. Not depressed, really, just off. When I feel like this, doing something creative always makes me feel better- so I decided to do something with the farty black bean yarn.

I got out my trusty clock reel and put plastic (grocery) bags over it’s arms. Although it is painted, I wanted to be sure that the wood was protected. I tied the bags onto the arms and then proceeded to wind the yarn from the ball.

 Not stylish- but effective!

I thought that, perhaps, if the yarn was dry, it wouldn’t smell as bad. Also, the yarn needed to be skeined so that I could rinse it. I guess I could have rinsed it right after skeining- but I wasn’t sure that the kids would behave long enough for me to do both.

I felt bad, though, because the ball was in a small, plastic container that my daughter was holding. In the process of the ball unwinding, stinky, farty water was splashing up into her face.

We decided to put the ball of fart yarn on the floor in a heavy container- which worked better for all involved.

While there was a bit of fading from light to dark, the difference wasn’t as bold as I had hoped- most likely because the yarn had been sitting in the black bean water for so long.

The color was a light gray- brown- most likely a result of the iron in my water.

In any case, I felt better after skeining; while my daughter most likely won’t feel 100% until she has the opportunity to shower!

Black Bean Dye Facts:

1. Use the rinse water from soaking your beans; do not heat the water. Heating will destroy the dye. A cold- water bath is used to dye yarn/ fiber/ fabric using black beans.
2. Pay attention to what you use to soak; hard water, water containing iron, etc. will have an effect on your final color.
3. Depending on the mordant or modifier used, black beans can produce colors ranging from shades of grey, purple, to dark blue.
4. Sunlight- as well as washing- will cause black bean- dyed items to fade.
5. Fermenting bean water really smells. You may be able to forget about your black bean experiments for a while, but you will not be able to forget about them forever- trust me!