More Dying to Dye For!

Life sure interferes with blogging. Where does a week or 4 go? We are experiencing official mud season here in Maine...a month early! What is with 80 degrees last Saturday? Sure was nice though. Crocus & Daffodils are up too. Now I hope mother nature doesn't pull something evil in the next month and show up with a nor'easter. It has happened in April..but I will cry. I have started my tomato seeds.

If you have played with yummy kool aid dying, it is now time for meat & potatoes dying (I'm hungry, can you tell :o).

Again, you will make an acid bath as mentioned in the kool aid dying (Wool has to be soaked in an acid bath for the cuticles to open on the fibers so it can accept dyes of any kind. So, take your dishpan and add a solution of 1 gallon of hot tap water with 1 cup of white vinegar (that is your acid). Soak your yarn or wool fiber in this solution for at least 20 minutes.) I use washfast acid dyes sold by Prochem.com. They have some nice beginner dye kits there too. They use acetic acid crystal instead of vinegar but the shipping weight is expensive and vinegar is cheap and easy to get. 1 teaspoon of dye will dye about a pound to a 1 1/2 lbs of wool. They must be dissolved with boiling hot water.

Take 1 level teaspoon of dye powder (add less if you want a paler color) and put it in an empty yogurt cup add 1/2 cup of hot water and stir with a wood popsickle stick. Dump that into a larger plastic container (like a cool whip container). Add the rest of the water to the yougurt cup and stir to mix any undissolved crystals. Dump in larger container. 

Now method 1 (used mostly for solid colors): Transfer dye into  a stainless steel pot and add enough water to cover your wool (estimate) add the wool that has been soaking to the stainless pot and add more water if necessary to cover wool. Add 1 cup vinegar to bath.  Put heat on low and cover the pot. Let it slowly heat up (take about an hour) to a simmer. Gently stir wool occasionaly with a wood spoon. Water will become clear when all dye is absorbed. If there is still a tint of color in the water add a bit more vinegar 1/2 to 1 cup. When all dye is absorbed, turn off heat and let wool cool in pot.

1. Press the cool water out gently with your hands (do not wring) and roll in a bath towel to absorb the water. Or....

2. Press the cool water out gently as above but don't put in a towel. Put it into your washing machine and let it spin, so not let it aggitate or fill with water, just let it spin.

Rainbow Dying Method 2: After wool has soaked in sink, gently press some of the water out and stransfer to a long length of plastic wrap. Take one of the colors and slowly drizzle it on the yarn or wool, next take a different color and do the same. When you like what you see, fold the plastic wrap longthwise across the yarn/wool . Then take one end of the plastic and roll it loosley until it reaches the other end. Place it on a rack of some sort in a pot with about an inch of hot water in it (you do not want your roll of yarn in plastic to touch the water). Now, turn on the heat and put a lid on the pot, check to see if it is steaming. Once you see the steam, turn down the heat to low and let steam for 30 minutes. Let cool, rinse yarn/wool (as mentioned above) and Hang your yarn to dry or if it is unspun wool, spread it out on a towel to dry.



There are many ways to dye but this to me is the easiest and less costly way to get started. So play...play...play!
Next time, maybe lets dabble with natural dyes...hmmm?

Have to work on my taxes this week :o( but I'll try to check in a little sooner than I have.

Have a great week and feel free to email me with questions.
Arlyne~ http://www.thewooleywhale.com/