[Fleecewife]

Does anyone know much about dyeing?

I have done a certain amount, using acid dyes onto wool.  I had great fun making variegated yarns by various different methods, but then I ran out of dyestuff.  The person who was importing the dyes I was using no longer does so and I'm wondering what would be the best dyes to use.  I would value your opinion on what to use.
I have used some natural dyes but the water here contains a lot of iron which saddens the colours and gives disappointing results.  I know I will have to use rainwater....... 

Everyone's experiences will be welcome  .

[Bionic]

Fleecewife I've sent you a PM

Sally

[Chris H]

Have you tried 'Jacquard' acid dyes, these work well on wool. The acid is nothing nasty only vinegar!
You can dip and splatter to your hearts content.
Lots of places on the web sell it, I only buy the basic three colours and mix, but I have a weakness for the hot pink!!

[colliewoman]

i just got given a book on natural dye materials for my birthday, you can make a grey lilac from mahonia! who'd a thought!!??

i shall have a look next time i'm in the craft room (at my friends house, i'm not that lucky) and get the isbn number for you

[Fleecewife]

I have tried natural dyeing, mainly using one of Jenny Dean's books, but I mostly got disappointing results with anything other than yellow  and even then I couldn't get the lovely clear gold I wanted from Anthemis Tinctoria, which I grew specially.  I particulary wanted to get the lovely soft green she shows from Comfrey, but all I ever got, after many battles with the mucilaginous properties of comfrey, was sludge colour 

At the moment I want to get reproducible results, which is why I'm after an alternative supplier of acid dyes.  In searching for suppliers of the Jacquard dyes (thank you Chris H), I found that George Weil (Fibrecrafts) do a similar product in the colours I am used to and reasonable quantities, so I think I will try those - unless anyone has had a problem with them?  I love mixing dyes to create something new.  I will try to post some pics of what I have done in the past.  I am keen to start again, especially as I have lots of white handspun Shetland yarn crying out for some colour 

[Fleecewife]

Thank you so much Bionic for the book on natural dyeing  .  It has inspired me to give it another go, as I know the colours obtained are far more pleasing than those from chemical dyes, and it's altogether more gentle - on me, the wool and the environment (as long as I keep away from chrome, tin and copper  )  I have a huge sack of alum mordant so I will definitely be doing some more of that.  I have pm'ed you 

[Bionic]

Fleecewife I'm just glad you could make use of it.   

[Shnoowie]

I had a go at synthetic dyeing yesterday and it was a big failure!  Turns out my washed wool still has too much lanolin in and it repelling the dye.  Does anyone have any tips with how to remove the lanolin?  Is it just lots of washing, or a certain product?

[Fleecewife]

Hi Shnoowie.  That was disappointing    I haven't had a problem with removing the lanolin - I wash a couple of times in fairly hot Ecover washing-up liquid, then rinse at least 3 times.  How did you wash yours, and what method of dyeing were you using?  Was it yarn or raw fleece?

[Shnoowie]

Mine is bunged in a pillow case and washed in the washing machine on a wool wash, usually with just water the hot water.  I'm working with raw fleece at the moment, I have a skein of yarn to dye but I think it may be too lanolin-y.  I've been following the Dylon 'recipe', can't remember it off the top of my head but it uses warm water and salt.  Think I may try washing another load today and putting some washing up liquid in to see what happens.  I've got enough fleeces for a bit of trial and error!

[Fleecewife]

Isn't Dylon for veg fibres such as cotton rather than animal fibres?

You are very brave to wash your fleece in the machine    It does sound as if you need to add washing up liquid, but it might make too many bubbles in a washing machine. 

Keep up with the trial and error - hopefully not too much error 

[Shnoowie]

I checked on the packed before I bought it and it said it would dye wool, but the colour would be lighter - which I what I was after, something pastel coloured.
I've found the washing machine to be okay, so long as the pillowcase is tied tightly; the only time it felted was when it went to the laundrette! Think I may try on the aga to minimize bubbles!

[Red]

There is a really good book which you can buy from Home Farmer's Good Life Press, they also had an article about it in the past few months ... might be worth a look? they also have a really good book on spinning!

[Lesley Silvester]

When I had a spinning and weaving workshop, we always handwashed the spun wool in skeins using washing up liquid, rinsed well then hung it to dry on a ceiling airer thingy with weights attached to pull out any kinks.  We didn't do dying though so I don't know if it would take out enough lanolin.

[Fleecewife]

Probably if you are planning on dyeing the yarn, as opposed to the unspun fleece, you could wash it once as fleece then again after spinning as yarn, just to make sure all the grease is out.