What a nice way to start the day - I turned on the computer and there were some stunning pictures of Sandra's silk top. I love the colours, Sandra. Did you rinse the tops before you put them to dry, and if so, did you lose much dye or had you got the quantity about right?
It will be exciting to see the yarn when it is spun - do you have an end project in mind for this or were you just playing?!
Thank you for posting the wallpaper trough, too, Margaret. It is a really usefull adaptation of the basic idea.
Jane
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Gutter prepared for dyeing
This blog accompanies an online workshop. The full details of the workshop can be found at http://www.wsdworkshops.org.uk/
Getting ready
Gutter prepared for dyeing
Thank you for this lovely workshop. Yesterday I spend all day in the garden dyeing in the sun. I find dyeing this way, a much more controlled method of dyeing than in the dyepot. I was a bit confused about the 1% dye solution, can you give an example please
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are enjoying this method of dyeing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I dye with acid dyes I make the dyes into solutions. That is, I use 5g of dye powder and dilute with water to 500ml. This is my stock solution and will keep indefinitely in a bottle in a cool place. When I want to dye fibres or yarn, I weigh the dry fibres and for each 10g of fibre I use 30 ml of dye, 10ml of vinegar and 10ml Glauber salt solution if I am immersion dyeing. That is if I want the full depth of colour. If I want paler tones, I decrease the amount of dye to, say, 10ml. For this sort of random dyeing, I soak the fibres in a vinegar and water bath before dyeing and omit the Glauber salts.
For example, if I was dyeing 30g of fibre, I would weigh it dry, then put it to wet out thoroughly. When it is wetted out, I would prepare my dyes - say red, yellow and blue. If I wanted equal quantities of each colour, I would use 30ml of red, 30ml of yellow, and 30ml of blue. This should give me enough dye to cover my fibre adequately, and not waste much. If I wanted to do pale red, pale yellow and pale blue, I would use 10ml red stock solution diluted with 20ml of water to give me the right amount of liquid but the paler tone; 10ml blue stock diluted with 20ml water, and 10ml yellow diluted with 20ml water.
Sorry if this is a bit compliacated, but do ask if any of this is not clear
Jane
hi jane thank you for the comments i did rinse the tops after they had cooled, there was not left over dye i was quite amased. i was just playing but now i think i may spin this for a scarf project (woven) i hope to use it as the weft with a plain warp i will try to spin some up and then post a picture.
ReplyDeletebusy weekend as it is wonder wool i hope to pick up more fibre, dye and yarns
Thank you, that made it much clearer.
ReplyDeleteHi Jane,
ReplyDeleteYesterday I dyed a large piece of cotton batting using the gutter method in a pre-pasted wallpaper tray,using Cipricon dyes which I have had mixed in a stock solution for a few years. Amazingly,this was a success so today am doing another using different colours.
This is really interesting. Cotton batting is something I have never thought to dye, though I have had success with very old dye solutions!
ReplyDeleteA photo of the new colourway would be nice!
Jane