The Dye Pot

Black Watch

I wasn’t aiming for anything in particular with this project, more looking to expand upon the experiment in variegation done in Crimson and Clover.  Well, that’s not exactly true I guess; I was hoping for more of a teal and less of an evergreen than I got but it’s all good, right?  If it doesn’t look like mud, then it’s a success - or so I tell myself :) And anyway, that’s just color - the experiment part went swimmingly!

Materials

Approximately 4 ounces of Lion FIsherman’s wool, natural color.
First stage: About 1/2 tsp Wilton’s icing dye - leaf green
Second stage:  1 bottle (1 fl oz) McCormick food coloring - blue
White vinegar
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Black Watch

Stage 1

As before, I tied the skein off into six, roughly equidistant segments.  This time I made a conscious effort to tie the denim strips very tightly and had better luck with them blocking the dye from the yarn beneath them.  I soaked (but did not wash) the yarn, ties and all.

I dissolved the icing dye hot water and then added that to about a gallon of tepid water along with about a 1/2 cup of white vinegar.  This went into the crock pot and the yarn was then added.  Heat was set at low.  I checked things every hour or so but this went for about 5 hours before most of the color was exhausted and even then here was a very faint green tint to what was left in the crock.  The yield was a bright green yarn interspersed with the natural cream of the undyed stuff at six more-or-less regular intervals.  I washed the yarn, untied the ties and hung it to dry.

Stage 2

The next day I tied the yarn off again, in the middle of the green sections this time, so that a little of the green was left on either side of the ties and the cream was completely exposed.  I made the dye bath with about 1/3 of an ounce of the liquid blue food color, white vinegar and water.  Then I soaked the yarn and added it to the dye bath.  After three hours or so in the crock pot, on low heat, the color had exhausted but the yarn looked dull and uninteresting.  It was also still a great deal more green than I wanted so I mixed up the remaining blue color and added that to the bath (removing the yarn before I did so and replacing it afterwards).  This took a long time to clear - about six more hours - but the results were much more pleasing to my eye.  The yarn ranges through medium/dark blue to evergreen to bright green.

Notes:

As an experiment in dyeing a yarn three different colors, this worked out pretty well.  The problem, if there was one, was that the green was almost overwhelming.  I will know next time to either use less dye or to mute it a bit (a bit of red or orange?) if I don’t want it to be quite so vivid.

Tying things off makes for a lengthy process - this took three days all together - but produces a nice result I think.  These colors are acceptable and work well together.  I’m still new enough at this whole dyeing thing for that to be enough :)

Posted by Robbyn on 09/15 at 10:27 AM