The Dye Pot

Raspberry Fields Forever

Materials

Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Highland Wool, bulky weight. about 200 grams
PAAS Easter egg dye tablets: 4 red, 2 purple
2 tbls citric acid crystals
Water

Method

Crock pot

Colorfast?

Yes

Color name

Raspberry Fields Forever

Soaked the yarn for about twenty minutes in the crock pot in cold water. Added 2 tbls of citric acid crystals to a cup of cold water, stirring until everything was completely dissolved. Then I added the dye tablets - which fizzed so energetically that there was some over flow :) When the yarn was soaked through, I removed it from the crock (gently squeezing out as much of the water as I could) and set it aside. I added the dye to the water in the crock pot and stirred it up to make sure everything mixed well. Then I put the yarn into the dye path, covered the crock and set it to high. The dye was exhausted after about two hours, so I turned everything off, removed the lid to the pot and let it cool down. Standard wash (dish detergent) and rinses. Rolled the yarn in a towel and hung to dry in the kitchen window.





Notes:

This was the first time I had ever used citric acid. I had some available that I had obtained for on old experiment in bath bombs but hadn't used it as the acid of a dye bath. I couldn't figure out how much (or little) to use and so the jar sat there on my closet floor, getting dusty.

I finally did try it this time because I was rabid to dye and I had run out of white vinegar :)

Although the emphatic scent of vinegar doesn't bother me, I must say it was nice that the kitchen didn't smell like a pickle factory :) In fact the citric acid didn't seem to smell of anything at all - at least not to me - but I don't have the most sensitive nose in the world.

The dyeing went quickly - only took about 2 hours - and the color is good. There was some very slight crocking when I washed it, but by the final rinse, there wasn't any more color coming out of the yarn; I believe the color is fast at this point.

I think I will try using a little more citric acid for the next attempt (say, 3 tbls instead of 2) and see if that takes care of the fugitive color because, aside of that minor issue, things came out very well indeed.

Posted by Robbyn on 01/02 at 10:48 AM