Acid dip-dyeing

I have now moved on to dip dyeing. It has cons and pros!

I started out with a mega hank like with the microwave method. Remember to tie the hank together every 1-2 m. It really avoids a lot of tangling.
I planned to make 5-6 colour sequences but must admist I did a lot of adjustning along the way and probably wouldn't be able to reproduce the colours. Guess it only makes them more unique!
Below is my setup. I dyed two hanks at the same time -it didn't cause must extra work as the time consuming part was to wait for the liqud to get hot. Shortly afteer this photo was taken I placed the yarn just next to the pot on a container that was higher than the pot. This reduces the bleeding. If the yarn just hang from the side it will dripp/suck up more dye.
It took a looong time to dye the 6 sequences I ended up with!! Partly because I was very carefull in the beginning and afraid of heating the liquid too fast. I soon learned only to put just enough water in to cover the yarn and to put the hotplate on high. I kept the water just below boiling (you can feel it simmer when you touch the pot) and continued until the yarn had gained the colour I wanted (it took too long to wait for all the dye to be absorbed). It seems like I needed less dye with this method and once I even re-used the dye bath (after cooling it down) I have a couple of plastic bags with leftover dye+liquid. But I guess the end result this time isn't as dark as with the microwave coloured yarn.

After the whole dyeing proces (I started in the evening and continue the next morning!! Put everything in plastic bags to keep it wet and then went t bed!)) carefully rinsed the yarn (not as much left over dye as with the microwave method) And let it dry overnight
I had to redye one of the colours in one of the hanks as two colourmixes were so equal that you could hardly tell the difference. In the yarn on the right hand side I didn't colour the sequences in the same order. You can see that no 2 and 5 are almost the same. On the left handside I recoloured sequences no 2 which looked just like no 3.
When the yarn was dry I put it back onto the mega hank board and cut of the cotton string. Try to avoid twisting of the yarn, it makes the winding a whole lot easier.

Be carefull not to cut the yarn (like I did)

Then the yarn was winded into a bug round skein which looks just like the earth! Isn't it beautifull?
But I really like hanks so I rewinded it once more!
With dip dyeing the colours get more even and I guess that if you dye a lot at the same time you will save a bit of time. I sure didn't!

It isn't difficult to seperate the colours. I have one place where there isn't enough dye in the area between two colours but it isn't difficult to be quite accurate. (keep the yarn outside the pot higher than then pot)

Put the hotplate on high!! (Mine was on 5 out of 6) You don't have all night!

When you like the colour, remove the yarn from the dye!

You can re-use leftover dye -eventually you can add a bit more colour.

is you don't like the colour, colour it once more.

It is easier to add than to remove!!! Start out with less dye than expected and then add more dye if it doesn't turn out as deep as you want it to be.

Remember that this is my first go with dip dyeing :-) I am not axpert at all. Maybe you know a better way and can teach me!