Oasis Sunset
This is the second part of the experiment that started with Purple Haze. The idea was to convert four balls of dirty pink mohair:
...into something nicer looking and therefore useable :)
Materials
Approximately 3.5 ounces of Classic Elite La Gran Mohair, pale grey/pink color.
1 orange and 1 yellow easter egg dye tablet, 4 tubs of Crystal Light Ruby Red Grapefruit
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Oasis Sunset
I washed this yarn in dish detergent and did not rinse before dyeing it. The dye was dissolved in about 1 cup of white vinegar and then water was added to the dye solution. This was poured carefully over the wet yarn in the crock pot. The pot was covered and turned to the low setting and the whole was allowed to work until the dye exhausted - about 2.5 hours. When I picked up the yarn to see how it looked I was disappointed by the lack of intensity. So I dissolved two more tubs of the Crystal Light Ruby Grapefruit in a little more vibegar, added more water and then added that to the dyebath (having removed the yarn first. I replaced it once the dye bath had been stirred). I turned the pot back on to low and the dye had exhausted after another hour and a half.
The original dyed color is on the left and the final dyed colot on the right. Much more what I had in mind :)
I let the yarn cool in the crock and then washed it in dish detergent, rolled it up in a towel for maxumum moisture extraction and then hung it to dry.
As with Purple Haze, there isn’t a swatch of this color yet because it’s intended for the mohair blanket. When it’s worked up, I’ll get a picture into this post.
Notes:
As previously noted when using Crystal Light drink mixes for dye, the bath exhausted very quickly and the residual in the crock was milky in appearance. Less than 4 ounces of yarn had no problem taking up two tablets plus four tubs of color and I have to wonder how much more it would have taken up, given the opportunity. I suspect that this ability to super-saturate (?) is what it means when I read someone say that mohair dyes beautifully. Given the opportunity, I will certainly try this again and probably keep loading in more and more dye until the yarn has absorbed everything it can - just to see how much it takes. Stay tuned!
Colored by Robbyn on 08/11 at 10:51 AM
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Purple Haze
Before
I had four balls of this mohair. Normally I like pinks, especially light pinks. But this yarn has a slightly grey component. Not enough to actually show, but enough to make the yarn look like it had been rolled in the dust - dirty, in other words. I kept trying to persuade myself that the predominant pink overrode it and that it would be just fine. Unfortunately, the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. Besides - I hadn’t tried dyeing mohair before and it was high time to give it a try :)
After
Materials
Just over 3.5 oz of Classic Elite La Gran mohair - pale grey-pink
Easter egg dye tablets: 1 blue, 2 violet
Kool-aid: 1 packet black cherry
White vinegar
Water
Method
Crock pot
Colorfast?
Yes
Color name
Purple Heather
I washed this yarn in dish detergent and did not rinse it before putting into the crock. The dye was dissolved in about a cup of vinegar (give or take an ounce or two). Water was then added, after the dye was completely dissolved, to make a solution that would cover the yarn and this was poured into the crock. Things were stirred gently and then the crock was turned on low for about three and a half hours - until the dye was exhausted.
I had read many times that mohair dyes beautifully and was curious to see what would happen. I was also wondering if I would be able to re-wind it after it had come out of the bath and been washed and dried. As it happens, this wasn’t a serious chore. However, while there wasn’t any felting (that I could determine) there was some matting as the mohair fibers are fairly long and do entangle with one another despite all precautions. Gentle persuasion was all that was required to pull them apart.
There isn’t a swatch of this yet as it is earmarked for my mohair blanket and I don’t want to use any of it up before that’s done. Because…well…you never know :) But, when I have worked some of it up, I will add a picture to this post.
Notes:
The process went easily and the yarn took the dye beautifully. Again, I wound up with the striations that seem to be the hallmark of hand-dyed yarn and it took me a while to get used to the appearance. This looked very dark coming out of the crock pot but lightened considerably (more than I would have expected) upon drying. Initially I didn’t think much of this color, but the more I look at it, the more depth it seems to have and the better-looking it seems to me. It will be a wonderful addition to the blanket and I’m seriously considering dyeing the other two balls of this stuff with oranges and yellows. That should produce an interesting effect over the pink and will provide more fodder for the blanket.
Also, when I did a progress check about half-way through the dye time, I observed that the red and blue tones of the dye had been pretty much taken up by the yarn but that there was still a green component in the water. I saw this phenomena before when I used black cherry Kool-aid to dye with and it’s something to bear in mind in the future. While there are no greens obvious in the finished yarn, presumably it had a muting effect and green is not a color I often want to combine with…well…much of anything, let alone reds and purples :)
Colored by Robbyn on 08/09 at 10:14 AM
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