The Good, The Bad and the Beautiful

One of the reasons I haven't been dyeing anything in the last few months is the insistence of Papa G that I not dye in the kitchen. But let's review my choices for places to dye.

I need a place with a cooking source. That would be a) the kitchen or b) the deck, specifically the grill with the gas burner.

I need access to running water. That would be a) the kitchen or b) the bathrooms.

The union of these two sets is the subset "Kitchen", is it not?

Yesterday I decided to take my life into my hands and use the kitchen. I covered the floor with plastic and the table and chairs with plastic; I put towels on the countertops.

The good:

I didn't spill a drop of dye or a speck of dye powder on any surface other than plastic.

I successfully dyed 8 ounces of fiber in an enamel stockpot and cleaned everything up before Papa G got home.

Papa G doesn't suspect a thing.

The bad:

Since I used only one plastic sheet, it went from the floor up onto the table and over the chairs. I was lucky this time, but I noticed serious flaws in my modus operandi, to wit:

a. cats, jumping onto table of - not a good thing since the plastic is slippery and the feline might ski right into the container of freshly mixed dye powder, causing it to topple over.

b. hardwood floor, slipperiness of - when plastic sheeting is put over wooden floors it creates an ice rink. One must walk very carefully or one might trip and fall, which would pull the plastic off the table, which would pull the dye containers off and splash it artistically around the kitchen.

The ugly:

Not one thing!

My mission was to find out how one color of dye would affect a variety of fibers and what it would look like on a dark natural fiber.

I used seven yarns in varying weights that added up to almost 8 ounces. Three were handspun and four purchased. Before dyeing, I took a small sample from each so that I could compare before and after. I then labeled each skein with masking tape and indelible pen so that I could tell them apart after they were dyed.

Next, I put them all in a pail of warm water to soak thoroughly before dyeing.

For the color, I settled on a simple mix of 90% Magenta and 10% Turqoise Sabraset (acid-based) dyes. This would give a nice merlot color, one of my favorites.

I mixed a 2% stock solution of each of the two colors by combining 1/4 oz dye powder with 12.5 oz of boiling water.

To dye 8 ounces of fiber at a 1% depth of shade (medium) I would need a total of 225 ml of 2% stock solution. 90% of that (202.5 ml) would be Magenta and 10% (22.5 ml) would be Turqoise. Using a medicine syringe, I measured out these quantities into a clean container and mixed them up. I poured the remaining stock solution into clean mason jars, labeled them and stored them for the future.

Into a 4-gallon enamel stockpot I put 3 gallons of water. I added 1/4 cup of Glauber salts, which aren't essential but are supposed to help distribute the dye evenly. I mixed that up, then added a cup of white vinegar, and then the 225 ml of dye that I had mixed up. Then I put all of the soaked fiber into the pot and turned on the burner to low. Over the next hour, I raised the temperature to almost boiling, very slowly, then kept it there for another 30 minutes. By this time the water was almost clear and the fibers had taken up all they were likely to.

I took the pot off the stove, put it on a heat-proof surface, and let it cool down slowly. After about three hours, I poured out the water, washed the yarns in a solution of Synthrapol and warm water, then rinsed and hung to dry.

The results? What? You wanna see results?

I'll get them rewound and labeled later today.

Posted by Sheila at November 11, 2004 08:32 AM Posted to Dyeing | TrackBack