Monday, March 29, 2010

A Day to Dye!

Any day that you can dye is a perfect day! It just takes a little time, some supplies and away you go--first, gather your supplies. You'll need an outside source for heat and space:
This is my standard go to stove when at home. There are also two propane stoves that are used when there is a workshop. As you can see, this stove has been Used!
Gather up plastic gloves, dye product, mask, setting agent, old spoon enamel pot; measuring equipment (all designated for dyeing)
We are dyeing wool/silk yarn so using acid dyes from Pro Chem . Every dyer has their favorite brand of dyes. Even though every dye product has been used in the past, this is the one that is returned to time and again.
And of course, you will need yarn, making sure that you have tied off the yarn in several places with a figure 8 tie to keep yarns together in the dyepot.
Into the dyepot--water, dye (be sure to put on your gloves and facial mask first), vinegar (our setting agent for this brand of acid dyes), set on heat source and let simmer (not boiling) for 30 minutes or longer. The ideal dyepot uses up all the dye in the water and attaches to the fiber. Remove yarn from pot and let dry, then rinse when at room temperature. This yarn was wool/silk blend from Wool2Dye4 . Sometimes silk will take the dye differently than wool.
On hand was another skein of yarn but the color of this yarn just didn't do it anymore. What can be done? Over dye, of course. But, first it was necessary to wind from one skein to another which gives the opportunity to use the swift and weasel (yes, this piece of equipment gave us the song "pop goes the weasel"). Aside here, the weasel makes a popping sound every 100 turns as it is a yard around the weasel and 100 turns lets you know--100 yards.
Knowing that there is only a couple of dyes that will overdye this strong color, we used turquoise, which will give a nice green blue color--alot better on the eyes! Dry, rinse and ready to be used in the next project.

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