The Dye Pot

Am I Blue?

Materials

Nomis Wolle, worsted weight - about 200 grams
PAAS Easter egg dye tablets: 4 blue, 4 purple
6 tbls citric acid crystals
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Am I Blue?

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?

Posted by Robbyn on 01/23 at 03:00 PM