The Dye Pot

Plums

Materials

About 3 ounces aran weight, undyed wool (Lionbrand Fisherman’s Wool)
Kool-aid packets: 2 black cherry, 1 grape
White vinegar
Table salt
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Plums

The yarn was washed in tepid water and dish detergent.  It was not rinsed before putting it into the crock pot.

I poured the vinegar (about a half cup - I had read that Kool-aid dyeing didn’t require additional acid to work well, but I didn’t want to take any chances - the vinegar wouldn’t hurt the yarn or impair the process and it doesn’t cost squat!) into another glass bowl and added the Kool-aid and about a tablespoonful of table salt (not iodized).  When everything was dissolved, I added water and poured it over the yarn in the crock pot, set the pot on low and let it go.  As seems to be about the usual, it took about three hours for the dye to exhaust after which he crock pot was turned off and the yarn allowed to cool.  It was then washed, rinsed, folded in a towel to draw out as much moisture as possible and hung up to dry. 

The yarn was wound and promptly made into a baby hat which was worked on size 8 (US) needles.

Notes: This wool did not felt in the slightest though the treatment it received was no different than the merinos.  Before the final washing (which was done with a shampoo/conditioner all-in-one sort of deal) it was a bit rough.  The shampoo/conditioner treatment did soften it up a bit.  I was surprised to note that the yarn lost none of its loft - for lack of a better term - during all the washing and dying.  I had, I guess, expected it to compress a little and it didn’t.  Pretty good performance for a dirt-cheap wool :)

Oh - and, as Uncle would say, One more thing… I did not notice much difference in the eveness of the dyeing despite the addition of a little dish soap and some salt.  I had read that each of these items would help make the dye “take” in a more uniform fashion.  I still got a reasonable base tone with slight lighter and darkers variations.  S’cool; I like the way that looks!

About two-thirds of the way through the process I checked the dyebath and found that the water was green.  From Black Cherry and Grape?  Hunh!  I considered removing the yarn at that point which might have yeilded a truer red/violet but I decided to let things run their course and left it alone.  Does that indicate that the red and blue tones were taken up faster than the green ones?

Posted by Robbyn on 05/30 at 12:25 AM