The Dye PotThe Dye Pot:All the fiber that's fit to dye and notes thereon...2009-02-22T21:19:47ZCopyright (c) 2009, RobbynExpressionEnginetag:wolfandturtle.net,2009:02:22Coralinetag:wolfandturtle.net,2009:Dye/index.php/3.9852009-02-22T22:16:01Z2009-02-22T21:19:47ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
This was an anonymous cream colored (i.e. undyed) wool that I picked up in a bag sale a while back. Most of it was used up in an afghan project but I had three partial balls left - about 162 grams (no idea about yardage). And I also had these cool new dyes to explore, see? Problem is, the extra dyes in the new acquisitions weren't labeled and the best you can tell from looking at the tablets is "kind of pink", "orangish" and "mostly blue" or "sort of green". I took a shot :)
I'm not entirely sure that all the yarn is the same brand and type. A small bit of it seems softer, more loosely spun but there's no way to be sure. It did all dye up nicely, so I guess the idea will be to use up that suspect bit by itself and not try to combine it with the other two balls.
Notes: I know I've babbled often about consistent and even color. Hand dyeing doesn't seem to be the pathway to that - at least not the way I do it :) This yarn is more varied than most with hot pinks, medium roses, almost-tangerines and peaches The shades are subtle enough that looking at the yarn from a couple of feet away, you might not notice. The more closely you examine it though, the more colors you see. It's pretty neat!
]]>Cedars of Lebanontag:wolfandturtle.net,2009:Dye/index.php/3.9822009-02-12T19:48:00Z2009-02-12T18:52:22ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
A while back, I acquired a lot of Knitpicks Palette in their discontinued "Wood" color with the idea of working it into a circular shawl. While I still want to do the shawl, the actual work has been shelved for the unspecified future. And because yarn never lies quietly and behaves itself for me, I wound up experimenting with dyeing some of it.
The original shade of the yarn was a warm brownish-orange - rather like the ubiquitous maple furniture sets of the '50s. It was actually quite a bit more attractive than I had anticipated, though I had originally purchased it with intent to dye. In fact I had also purchased some burgundy icing dye for that purpose and will probably give that a try on some of the rest of this yarn.
I'm not sure what prompted me to try purple (undiluted purple at that!) on an almost orange yarn. I remember thinking that the result would either be interesting or horrible. As luck would have it, interesting it was :)
Notes: While the above picture seems to indicated a fairly uniform color, that's not really the result. It's a grey day here and I couldn't get away from using the flash - so I blame that. The yarn evolved from its original (uniform) orange-maple color into something much richer and more complicated. It has browns, auburns and shades of both red and purple. It is not wildly vareigated, but the color shifts are clear when you look for them. I am not a fan of "browns" at all but this yarn and the subsequent dyeing experiments I've done with it have certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities. This stuff is, to my eye, absolutely gorgeous - something I never thought I'd say about any brownish thing.
]]>Respighi’s Pinestag:wolfandturtle.net,2009:Dye/index.php/3.9792009-02-07T15:31:00Z2009-02-07T14:40:27ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
This is the last three balls of a superwash bulky I picked up some time ago. Most of the lot went into a gentleman's scarf last winter (the color seemed appropriate) and when I ran across the remainder in the stash last week, my immediate thought was, "Dye fodder!"
This is a French yarn, Chanteleine Goliath, about which I can find nothing on line :)
The green dye didn't fully exhaust - which seems to be perfectly normal for green dye. I let the crock pot run for several hours to make sure the yarn had taken up all the color it could and then went through the usual wash, rinse and dry routine.
There's no swatch yet, but I will post a picture of whatever I use this to make when it's complete - probably a hat or scarf for charity. There's only just over 200 yards of yarn here and I don't want to give up any length for a swatch!
Notes: Nothing to speak of; this was pretty straight-forward.
]]>Rusty Venturetag:wolfandturtle.net,2009:Dye/index.php/3.9782009-02-04T22:57:00Z2009-02-04T22:05:31ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
I wanted to make some fingerless gloves for my aunt but didn't have appropriate yarn available. I wanted to do a modified version of the Dana Victoria mitts which involves complex patterning - so a variegated yarn was right out. Unfortunately, all the fingering weight I had was multi-colored. So that meant dyeing something. I acquired two balls of Patons Kroy sock yarn in natural cream and started plotting :)
I was staying with my father, following his pre-Christmas surgery, and didn't have access to my usual tools and materials - so I found ways to make do with what was available and what I could easily procure at the supermarket. Materials
100 grams fingering weight sock yarn - 75% wool/25% nylon (Patons Kroy, natural cream)
Kool-aid - 1 packet each Strawberry and Orange, 2 packets of black cherry
Six teabags steeped in about a quart of boiling water and allowed to cool a bit
Method
Stove top
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Rusty Venture
I soaked the yarn as usual. Because this is a superwash item, I felt free to knead and squeeze as necessary to get it thoroughly wet so the soak didn't really take any time. I combined the kool-aid colors with the tea and put this mixture into a pasta pot (you know - one of the kind that has a colander insert?) along with enough water to cover the yarn. Between the citric and ascorbic acids in the kool-aid and the tannic acid contribution of the tea, there was more than enough to get the dye to stick to the yarn so I didn't bother adding any vinegar this time. Then I added the yarn, stirred everything so that all the yarn and the dye made good contact and then turned the heat on. When the pot came to a boil, I turned the heat down to a medium simmer and let it go. It took about an hour for the dye to fully exhaust - a bit quicker than my usual crock pot procedure. Then the yarn was washed, wrapped in a towel to get rid of as much water as possible and hung to dry.
When the yarn was dry, I wound it and made my aunt's mitts. These were worked on size 1 US (2.25 mm) needles.
Notes: While the yarn dyed beautifully and knitted up well, I would have liked it to be a bit softer. I do understand, however, that this was intended to be used for socks and was likely designed to withstand a lot more stress and wear than the mitts will probably ever get :)
I rather enjoyed the stove-top process. I have done it before, but only rarely and it always surprises me how quickly the whole thing goes. I need to explore this more. The only disadvantage is that I'm not comfortable putting something on the fire and then leaving the kitchen - so I had to stay right there while things were working. With the crock pot, I don't feel that kind of constraint.
]]>Pigeon’s Bloodtag:wolfandturtle.net,2008:Dye/index.php/3.9042008-03-14T14:23:00Z2008-03-14T13:33:45ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud (100% baby alpaca), lace weight. 100 grams, Iris color
PAAS dye tablets: 6 red
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Pigeon's Blood
Soaked the yarn in tepid water (in the crock) and dissolved the dye tablets in the vinegar (in a separate container, of course!). Removed the yarn from the soak water and added the dye, stirring to mix. Added the yarn to the dye bath and set the crock pot to high.
I had three hanks of this originally and have dyed one previously (see Thunder Storm). I hauled the other two hanks out earlier this week and decided that their original lavender-grey wasn't going anywhere and some spiffing up was definitely in order. That, of course, came in the form of red dye :)
This is the original yarn. I've dyed this baby alpaca before and always had great results with it. It's absolutely sinfully soft yarn - in fact it you didn't know better, you might think you were working with cashmere. It's just lovely stuff - whether you're knitting or dyeing - a pleasure to work with and use :)
Notes: There were no real surprises here except that I used half again as much dye as I would ordinarily for 100 grams of yarn - and the yarn had no problem taking up all the color. The exceedingly rich color is a real pleasure to behold and I am keeping myself entertained, thinking about how I can use this and what lovely things it will make!
]]>Am I Blue?tag:wolfandturtle.net,2008:Dye/index.php/3.8842008-01-23T22:00:00Z2008-01-23T21:01:25ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
This time I increased the citric acid component - 3 tbls in the soak water and 3 tbls in the dye solution - and then followed the usual procedure. Soak the yarn, mix the dye, add dye to the water in the crock pot, place yarn in dye bath and turn heat to high. Cover and leave until dye is exhausted - about 3 hours in this case. Let yarn cool, wash, rinse, roll in towel and hang to dry.
Notes:
This is as close as I ever gotten to a real blue in any of my dyeing efforts. It's the kind of color I was hoping for last year when I was dying yarn for this shawl. It was also a surprise because I had been going for this colorway which I had reasonably duplicated here (scroll down a bit).
I used the same dyes in the same proportions and the same procedure. The difference was that I was using citric acid this time instead of vinegar and my best guess is that the pH of the dye bath was different - resulting in different colors coming to the fore.
It's a fascinating lesson on what happens under varying circumstances. I guess if I want to be able to reproduce colors, not only am I going to have to track dyes (types and amounts/proportions) but pH as well.
Where does a non-scientist obtain litmus paper?
]]>Grassestag:wolfandturtle.net,2008:Dye/index.php/3.8832008-01-23T21:40:00Z2008-01-23T20:46:21ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Experimented just a bit with the citric acid crystals by adding 2 tbls to the soak water as well as 2 tbls to the dye solution - otherwise, pretty much standard procedure. Soak the yarn, mix the dye, add dye to the water in the crock pot, place yarn in dye bath and turn hat to high. Cover and leave until dye is exhausted - about 2 hours in this case. Let yarn cool, wash, rinse, roll in towel and hang to dry.
Notes:
This is the first time, dyeing something with a green component, that the dye completely exhausted. I assume that the citric acid (as it's the only thing I'm doing differently) is responsible but, as a friend quite correctly pointed out to me, it could be that the pH (level of acidity) is different and that different colors react in various ways to different pHs. Though the yarns are different, the end results were nearly identical. See this post (scroll down) for the result of another effort with these same two yarns and a different set of colors.
I had been hoping for something a bit more muted than this. I think that would have required a bit of red or orange which I didn't used in this lot. That said, the more I look at this fresh, springy color, the better I like it :) The swatch sample is from a hat I crocheted with this yarn. The hat has been frogged though, so I can use the yarn - and it's happy hue - elsewhere :)
]]>Raspberry Fields Forevertag:wolfandturtle.net,2008:Dye/index.php/3.8742008-01-02T17:48:00Z2008-01-02T16:52:59ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool, bulky weight. about 200 grams
PAAS Easter egg dye tablets: 4 red, 2 purple
2 tbls citric acid crystals
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Raspberry Fields Forever
Soaked the yarn for about twenty minutes in the crock pot in cold water. Added 2 tbls of citric acid crystals to a cup of cold water, stirring until everything was completely dissolved. Then I added the dye tablets - which fizzed so energetically that there was some over flow :) When the yarn was soaked through, I removed it from the crock (gently squeezing out as much of the water as I could) and set it aside. I added the dye to the water in the crock pot and stirred it up to make sure everything mixed well. Then I put the yarn into the dye path, covered the crock and set it to high. The dye was exhausted after about two hours, so I turned everything off, removed the lid to the pot and let it cool down. Standard wash (dish detergent) and rinses. Rolled the yarn in a towel and hung to dry in the kitchen window.
Notes:
This was the first time I had ever used citric acid. I had some available that I had obtained for on old experiment in bath bombs but hadn't used it as the acid of a dye bath. I couldn't figure out how much (or little) to use and so the jar sat there on my closet floor, getting dusty.
I finally did try it this time because I was rabid to dye and I had run out of white vinegar :)
Although the emphatic scent of vinegar doesn't bother me, I must say it was nice that the kitchen didn't smell like a pickle factory :) In fact the citric acid didn't seem to smell of anything at all - at least not to me - but I don't have the most sensitive nose in the world.
The dyeing went quickly - only took about 2 hours - and the color is good. There was some very slight crocking when I washed it, but by the final rinse, there wasn't any more color coming out of the yarn; I believe the color is fast at this point.
I think I will try using a little more citric acid for the next attempt (say, 3 tbls instead of 2) and see if that takes care of the fugitive color because, aside of that minor issue, things came out very well indeed.
]]>Rapunzeltag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.8692007-12-21T16:02:00Z2008-01-02T16:28:20ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool, bulky weight. about 200 grams
PAAS dye tablets: 1.5 orange, 1.5 yellow
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Rapunzel
Soaked the yarn for about twenty minutes in a bowl of room temperature water and, in a separate container, dissolved the dye in about 3/4 cup of white vinegar. When the yarn was thoroughly wetted, I removed it from the water and added the dye to the bath, stirring to mix. The dye bath was then transferred to the crock pot and the yarn added to the bath. A little more water was added to the bath (so that the yarn would be covered), the crock was covered and the pot set to high.
Notes:
I was going for a pale (but not pastel - not a baby yarn color) gold. For 200 grams of yarn, I would normally use 6 - 8 color tablets, Here, I only used 3 all together and still managed to achieve a brighter color than I was aiming for. Next time I'll try even less dye and maybe add a little (tiny bit) of something else to mute things a bit.
Never the less, the color I did get is gorgeous, not at all eye searing, and exceedingly warm and cheerful :) Interestingly enough, one hank is very slightly lighter than the other. I believe that happened as a result of adding water to the dye bath after the yarn had been placed. The skein at the top of the pot, essentially, was in a less concentrated part of the bath while the skein on the bottom was in a more concentrated region. Something to remember going forward.
]]>Bombaytag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.8072007-08-24T03:56:00Z2007-08-23T21:01:08ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool, fingering weight. about 100 grams
PAAS dye tablets: 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow
6 teabags (regular, ordinary black tea)
White vinegar
Water
Method
Stove top
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Bombay
I used the stove top this time - one color in each of three jars - in order to get a variegated result in less than three days :) First I made the tea (tea bags and boiling water) in a big glass bowl with enough water to cover the yarn. When it had cooled, I soaked the yarn in the tea for about 45 minutes. Then I placed a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in the bottom of each of three jars and added a dye tablet to each one. When the dye was completely dissolved, I filled the jars about two-thirds full with cold tea. Then I added the yarn - approximately a third of the skein folded into each jar. The jars went into a strainer which went into a kettle of water. The whole kit-and-caboodle went on the stove where it simmered for about 2 hours - until the dye exhausted. Then the heat was turned off and everything was left to cool overnight.
I have only dyed on the stove top once before and that was the Citrine Curry but it was for the same reason - to get a multi-colored yarn without a prolonged process.
The swatch was done on size 7 US (4.0 mm ) needles.
Notes:
I have used tea before as a muting agent, particularly with warm colors, so that the colors wouldn't wind up looking too bright. Previously, I had used the tea as part of the dye bath but I had never soaked the yarn in it before. I wanted to see if that made a difference. It did, though it was small. In both the yellows and the oranges, the muting effect was slightly more intense than before (compared, say, to the yellows and oranges in the Citrine Curry.
I had hoped I was dying a shawl yarn here, but the colors are more intense than I had hoped for. I'm trying a lace scarf with it and rather liking the results. Also, the yarn is a little rougher, coarser than I had hoped. I will probably keep the rest of the fingering weight for dyeing experiments and order pure merino when I ready to make the next shawl.
]]>Tea Rose for Twotag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.7922007-07-27T17:16:00Z2007-07-27T10:43:25ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool, worsted weight. about 100 grams
PAAS dye tablets: 4.5 red, 1.5 purple
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Tea Rose for Two
Pretty much the standard procedure - soak the yarn in cool water, dissolve the dyes in vinegar, dye in crock pot, yarn into dye bath and crock pot set to high.
This is exactly the same combination of dye in the same proportions as was used for Tea Rose and the results are very similar. The slight differences can be chalked up to two things: The yarn is different (Tea Rose was a merino fingering weight) and I had been hoping for a graduated color take-up which totally didn't happen :)
The swatch was done on size 7 US (4.0 mm ) needles.
Notes: I had wanted to go for a variegated yarn - one that went from deep rose, to medium pink, to pale pink. With this in mind, I put a third on the hank into the dye pot to take up what I hoped would be the greatest part of the dye. I left that for about half an hour before slipping another thirs of the hank into the bath. Another half hour and then I added the rest of the wool. This was clearly not quite the way to go about it because there's very little variation in final product - though there is some. The yarn isn't a bad color(s) though and will be perfectly usable. So I'm going to have to rethink this variegated/graduated color thing and see if I can come up with a better way of managing it. Maybe a stove-top method would be a better way to go? I'll let you know :)
]]>Thunder Stormtag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.7832007-07-09T03:37:01Z2007-07-08T20:45:59ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, lace weight. 50 grams, Iris color
PAAS dye tablets: 1/2 blue, 1/2 purple
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Thunder Storm
Pretty much the standard procedure - soak the yarn in cool water, dissolve the dyes in vinegar, dye in crock pot, yarn into dye bath and crock pot set to high.
This was the result of a yarn I already had in a color that didn't do much for me. The original looked like this:
I had been looking at some other lace and fingering weight yarns in the blue to violet range and remembered that I had a fair amount of this Knitpicks yarn. The baby alpaca is just gorgeous, soft, silky yarn but the color didn't work with the others. So I decided to take one hank and gently over dye it - to see what happened. It already leaned in the right direction, it just needed a little more nudging :)
The swatch was done on size 5 US (3.75 mm ) needles.
I even indulged in some lace knitting for the swatch figuring that was probably how this yarn should be shown. While I think it came out reasonably well, I'd be embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to manage it.
Notes: I have dyed this yarn before. Second Hand Rose also started its life as part of the Alpaca Cloud line, color - Sunlight Heather. This yarn dyes beautifully and comes out of the process as silky and glossy as it was when it went in. This particular color, Thunder Cloud, is interesting and does go with the other yarns I had been looking at earlier - in fact it goes very well. But I wish it were a little brighter :)
]]>Maple Leaf Ragtag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.7692007-06-08T02:21:00Z2007-06-07T19:23:30ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 2 red, 1 orange. 1/2 purple
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Maple Leaf Rag
Standard Procedure - Soaked the yarn in cool water, dissolved the dye in white vinegar, added the dye solution to about 4 quarts of water, mixed and poured into the crock pot. Added the soaked yarn (soak time - about 30 minutes), stirred gently to acquaint all the yarn with the dye bath, put the lid on and turned the crock pot to the high setting.
I had hoped the presence of purple would help to tone down the brilliance of the red-orange. All I can say is that I keep trying to imagine what the yarn would look like if there hadn't been any purple at all :) Green might have been a better option for muting the color, but the chances of winding up with something muddy and unappealing would have gone up too, I think.
The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.
Notes: Like a couple of the previous yarns, this too used almost twice as much dye as I would normally use for 50 grams of yarn - and this is nothing if not saturated! Whee! However, despite its gregariousness, I like it. In fact taken together (though it wasn't intentional) this color along with the previous three (Evermoss, Terra Copper and Here Comes the Sun!) seem to present a classic autumn palette.
I love fall :)
]]>Evermosstag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.7672007-06-06T02:33:00Z2007-06-06T10:15:42ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 3 green, 1/2 red
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Evermoss
Soaked the yarn in cool water, dissolved the dye in white vinegar, added the dye solution to about 4 quarts of water, mixed and poured into the crock pot. Added the soaked yarn (soak time - about 45 minutes), stirred gently to acquaint all the yarn with the dye bath, put the lid on and turned the crock pot to the high setting.
In this case, the red was used to keep the green from screaming too loudly :) I didn't want a Kelly, St. Patrick's Day green, but something more likely to be found in the woods. As has happened before with greens, the dye didn't completely exhaust though I left the heat on the bath for about 6 hours. As with the Terra Copper, this is more dye than I would normally use for 50 grams of yarn but I wanted a solid, saturated color.
The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.
Notes: This isn't bad, if you like greens, but is a little drabber than I was aiming for. Maybe that's the wrong word as it seems to carry connotations of lifeless and dull :) I don't think this color is either of those things so maybe, rather than being drab it's really just muted? That's it - it's muted! Heh... And whatever I decide to knit with it can always be brightened a bit with a small application of Here Comes the Sun!
]]>Terra Coppertag:wolfandturtle.net,2007:Dye/index.php/3.7652007-06-04T03:42:00Z2007-06-03T21:01:39ZRobbynyarnpath@wolfandturtle.nethttp://www.wolfandturtle.net/Yarnpath
Materials
Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 2 orange, 1 red, 1/2 purple
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Terra Copper
Soaked the yarn in cool water, dissolved the dye in white vinegar, added the dye solution to about 4 quarts of water, mixed and poured into the crock pot. Added the soaked yarn (soak time - about 45 minutes), stirred gently to acquaint all the yarn with the dye bath, put the lid on and turned the crock pot to the high setting.
The use of 3 1/2 tablets of dye is more than I would normally use for 50 grams of yarn. However, I wanted a really intense, saturated color and so decided to go a little overboard by nearly doubling the quantity of dye. It did take a while for the dyebath to exhaust - close to 6 hours - but eventually the liquid cleared.
The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.
Notes: This is much closer to the color I was aiming for with Here Comes the Sun!. This color is fun and vibrant without looking garish (well, maybe it's a little bright!) and I think a slight muting (maybe using strong tea as a base liquid rather than plain water?) would make it absolutely perfect. Just, please don't call it pumpkin. I'd have to shoot you and that would make us both unhappy :)
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