I recently participated in a "Fleece to Scarf" competition and dared to volunteer to dye the fleece beforehand. I had not dyed too many things and couldn't even find the directions I got in a class I had a couple of years ago. No problem, I thought, I'll look on line, there are bound to be a gazillion directions out there. Well, I found plenty of vague instructions, but not "complete" ones that included ALL the steps with ALL the measurements for the type of dying I wanted to do. I wanted to do crock pot or "low immersion" dying in a pot on the stove with dye in liquid form, verses powder. Lots of people seemed to be doing it, but I couldn't find a set of instructions with all the measurements I wanted. So, I combined all the bits I found on the various sites and made up my own recipe. I took lots of photos to document it and I hope I can recount it all here for my own sake as well as for others looking for complete instructions.
Step 1: Soak fleece (or yarn or roving) for at lease 30 min. in a large plastic 5 gal bucket using the following quantities:
8 oz clean fleece
2 gal room temp water
- 1/2 t Synthropol
|
Step 2: While fleece is soaking, mix up some dye stock solutions
- 1.5 t dye powder
- 1 Cup hot water
|
- I used Prochemical Acid Dyes but probably any acid dye will work
- wear mask and rubber/vinyl gloves and do outside
- use containers and measuring cups and spoons that you will NEVER use for food again
- measure out 1.5t of dye and put in glass jar
- slowly pour 1 Cup hot water (I heated some in a tea pot) into the jar with the dye and stir thoroughly
- I mixed up three jars of stock solution: one each of red, blue and yellow. I labeled each jar with the names, quantities and the date I mixed them using painters tape and a permanent marker.
Step 3: Mix up specific dye colors and dilute with water
- I didn't initially know how much of each dye color and how much water I would need, so I used medicine syringes and kept tallies on note papers (one tally mark for 10ml of liquid)
- I used plastic squeeze bottles for this so I could aim my dye where I wanted it later on
- I used hot water from my tea pot poured into a dye-designated measuring cup to dilute the dye with—good idea since the blue dye gets gel-like as it cools
- I mixed up a medium blue color, a purplish-blue and a green-ish blue with a monochromatic color scheme in mind
- I put painters tape on each squeeze bottle with my final dye to water ratios to document my colors for future reference
- here is a summary of the dye stock(s):water ratios for the colors I created...
Bright Blue (#440)
90ml dye stock:250ml water | Blue (#440)/Red (#366)
60ml blue:30ml red:250 water | Blue (#440)/Yellow (#119)
70ml blue:20 ml yellow:250ml water |
- I tested my colors by dipping a gloved finger in each mixture and dabbed it on a paper towel. It's not completely accurate as the colors change some throughout the process, but it gives you an idea of how your colors compare with one another.
Step 4: Mix acid solution in dye pot
- Use a pot that you will NEVER use for food (stainless steal or enameled pot with NO rust)
- Here is the recipe I used for the dye pot:
- 5qt water (room temp)
- ½ T salt
- ½ T citric acid crystals (3/8 C vinegar would work too)
- ½ t Synthropol
|
- Put the water in first, measure and add each ingredient and stir with designated dye spoon until everything is mixed and dissolved.
Step 5: Apply dye to fleece
- Drain fleece carefully without agitation so as not to felt it.
- Place wet fleece carefully into acid solution in dye pot and gently push down with dye spoon or gloved hands—you may want to do this in layers so the dye is sure to get to the fleece at bottom
- Squirt desired quantities of dye solutions on wool. For this step, you may want to layer the fleece or use a spoon to gently push on the wool to get the dye to the bottom level. The dye will travel and mix some, which is part of the fun. I squirted some blue in the middle and each of the mixes on either side.
- The more dye you use, the more intense the colors will be and the less white areas you will end up with in your fleece. For each batch of 8oz of fleece I used about ½ of a bottle (about 180ml dye solution). A little dye seemed to go a LONG way!
Step 6: “Cook” your wool
- Put the lid on your pot.
- Turn on the stove to a med-high heat until the water is almost boiling (it starts to make that funny sound from the bottom of the pot) and turn it down to a low-med heat setting. You can look up temperatures on line if you want to know that. I never measured the temp but just kept the pot at kind of a low simmer.
- Keep the lid on the pot to keep heat constant and cook for 1 to 2 hours until you see that the dye is exhausted—the wool will be colored and the water around it will be clear.
- Turn off the heat, remove the pot from the burner and take off the lid.
- Allow wool to cool to room temp or close to it.
Step 7: Rinse/wash/dry wool
- Carefully drain wool.
- Gently place wool in room temp water with just a dab of Dawn dish detergent in it and leave for at least 20 min. Carefully drain.
- Gently place wool in room temp water with a splash of vinegar and leave for at least 20 min. Carefully drain.
- Optional: lay wet wool on a couple of towels. Place a towel or two on top and carefully walk on them to squeeze out excess water.
- Gently spread out your newly colored wool on a drying rack or dry towels and wait 1-3 days until completely dry.
You did it! You now have some really fabulously colored wool! If you don't like your colors as much as you'd hoped, let it grow on you, card it with some other wool, give it away or dye it again!
Go for it! Take chances! Have fun! What are you waiting for???
Thanks for visiting!
