The Dye Pot

Maple Leaf Rag

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 :)

Colored by Robbyn on 06/07 at 07:21 PM
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Evermoss

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!

Colored by Robbyn on 06/05 at 07:33 PM
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Terra Copper

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 :)

Colored by Robbyn on 06/03 at 08:42 PM
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Here Comes the Sun!

Materials

Paton's Merino wool, worsted weight. 50 grams, natural color
PAAS dye tablets: 2 yellow, 1/4 purple
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Here comes the sun!

I put the yarn in tepid water to soak. Then I dropped the dye tablets into about 3/4c of white vinegar - this is more vinegar than you actually need to effect the dyeing process, but it won't hurt anything :) I squeezed most of the water out of the yarn (soak time - about 20 minutes) and set it aside. I added the dye solution to the soak water, stirred until water and dye were thoroughly mixed and then poured it into the crock pot. Then I added the yarn to the dye bath, put the lid on the crock and set the temperature gauge to high. It took about 70 minutes for the yarn to exhaust the dye.





I hadn't tried dyeing with the Paton's merino before but it was a pleasant experience. It didn't full even a little bit (as Lionbrand's Fisherman's Wool frequently does). didn't compact down, didn't get fuzzy and took the dye very nicely. This may be the first time I've tried the Paton's, but it won't be the last.





The swatch was done on size 9 US (5.5 mm) needles.

Notes: Aside of how nice the yarn turned out to be, the only surprise here was the end color. I had been aiming for something in the copper-to-terra cotta range and when it came out of the crock pot, I could see I had missed it by a mile :) Turns out that while I had intended to use orange as the primary color, what I grabbed was yellow. Go figure! Still, it's a very cheerful and pleasant color without being too, terribly eye-watering and will make a great accent color for any number of projects.

Colored by Robbyn on 06/02 at 03:10 PM
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