Author Topic: Dyepot's on (Read 2721 times)

Fleecewife · « **on:** November 29, 2012, 10:56:42 pm »

Eek - at 1045 tonight I put my Baby Burco dyepot on to boil, with all 750gms of my recently spun BFL yarn in. Plus of course some acid dye (red) from George Weil, and some white vinegar. I'm just waiting for it to come up to a simmer. Looks like a late night.

I'm not doing anything fancy, just straight pot dyeing. It's a good few years since I last did some. I'll let you know if it works

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #1 on:** November 30, 2012, 08:44:16 am »

Good luck!

I've been having such fun with this stove-top rainbow-dyeing - I dyed all of my Teeswater lamb fleece, and my Teeswater tops in the exhaust and am absolutely over the moon with the results.

Just haven't quite decided what to do with all this beauty...

Bionic · « **Reply #2 on:** November 30, 2012, 09:12:15 am »

Can't wait to see pics of the results from both of you

Sally

Fleecewife · « **Reply #3 on:** November 30, 2012, 04:20:52 pm »

Phew - it took over 2 hours to come to a simmer, then 50 mins to absorb all the colour, so it was 1/4 to 2 before I left it all to cool overnight and staggered off to bed. Today I have washed and rinsed it all. Outside temp has stayed well below freezing all day so I can't dry it outside, and it's now all layed out flat on a sweater mesh to dry. In its wet state it looks a bit uneven - never mind. Will try to get a pic.

It is such fun - not so much this plain pot dyeing, but multi-coloured efforts done in the oven are my favourite. I think I will do my 'heather hillside' again, maybe with the shetland yarn. When I did it before I dunked 2/3rds of a skein, hanging from a wooden spoon over the top of the pot, so that 1/3rd was left undyed, into a light purple bath. Then I turned it round and again dunked 2/3rds in a med green bath. Where the two colours crossed came out as a dark purple and dark green, and it knitted up into a patchy hillside with heather look. This time I will do it in the oven with smaller lengths of each colour ie shorter repeats.
There's another one with deep turqoise and green, which made a deep electric blue where it crossed, to represent a pre-thunderstorm sky. Great fun.

A bonus from digging out the baby Burco was that it had inside it the bag of onion skins I had collected a few years ago. I thought my OH had chucked it out, but it turns out he had carefully stashed it for me

So now I have two bags of onion skins.......I must decide what to dye with that.
I also looked out my old dyeing notes which will be very helpful. I had done all sorts of test bits with different concentrations and mixes of dyes to give a wide range of colours, and have kept all the paper and notes.

(I also found my dolly fleece which isn't as grotty as I thought. There are definitely some saveable bits

)

I think I've got the bug again

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #4 on:** November 30, 2012, 05:24:03 pm »

Excellent news!

So is the oven dyeing the same as our 'stove-top rainbow-dyeing' ? I have definitely got the dyeing bug - my Teeswater locks colours would make a seaside scene on a sunny, choppy day...

and the tops would be night falling with a storm looming in the distance...

Dans · « **Reply #5 on:** November 30, 2012, 10:54:25 pm »

Oooo this thread might just be what I need to make me make the plunge. Can't wait for pics

Dans

Fleecewife · « **Reply #6 on:** November 30, 2012, 11:02:56 pm »

Quote from: SallyintNorth on November 30, 2012, 05:24:03 pm

Excellent news!

So is the oven dyeing the same as our 'stove-top rainbow-dyeing' ? I have definitely got the dyeing bug - my Teeswater locks colours would make a seaside scene on a sunny, choppy day... and the tops would be night falling with a storm looming in the distance...

I don't know if it's the same

For the oven dyeing, I use a turkey sized tin roasting dish or similar, wet the yarn/fleece in vinegar water and lay it in the dish, then squirt my chosen coloured dyes onto the wool and add extra water if needed. I cover the meat dish with foil then stick it in the oven for I think half an hour, but checking not to burn it. Can also be done in a microwave oven, when the wool is wrapped in cling film to keep it moist. Is that the same? How do you do yours on the stove top?

Dans, I think Sally's pics will be far more exciting than mine

I'm looking forward to seeing them too.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #7 on:** December 01, 2012, 03:08:40 am »

Your oven method does sound very similar to the stove-top rainbow dye method, yes. But we add the vinegar and washing up liquid to the water and then add the raw fleece - which can be dry or soaked in cold water, both ways work fine, although I think you get a better diffusion of colour if it isn't pre-soaked. And then we use dry dye powder, not pre-mixed - I think this helps to get concentrations of colour where you put the dye and then a gradual diffusion and mixing at the edges. I may experiment with using pre-mixed dye just to see how different the result is.

The lady that taught us this method doesn't cover the pot but says she knows some people who do - and also said she does know people who do it in the oven, but she herself has an Aga and finds it convenient to do it on the top.

Do you add washing up liquid to your pot, Fleecewife? One of the Ravellers said she was going to try 'my' method but without the washing up liquid as she wanted the fleece to keep its lanolin - I'm not sure it'll work, as I think you need the washing up liquid to get the lanolin to lift during the process to let the dye into the fibres. I believe that some of the lanolin re-deposits on the fleece as you let it cool in the dye bath, so you end up with a pleasantly lubricated but not greasy fleece to spin.

I have done the microwave method too, although not on raw fleece. I dyed my most recent pair of socks as finished objects this way and they are a lot of fun.

You get much softer colours and considerably more blending this way, I think.

(Yes, there are pics, I will get them up soon...)

Fleecewife · « **Reply #8 on:** December 01, 2012, 09:09:43 am »

It seems a bit different in that I use only clean fibre/yarn so don't need any washing up liquid. But for keeping lanolin in the wool it sounds a really interesting method. As always there are a variety of ways of doing this, and there is always an ingenious human who will think of a way to solve a particular problem.

There are also various resist methods you can use when dyeing, even just plaiting a skein of yarn before dyeing will give an interesting distribution of each colour. You can also tie the skein tightly, or sit flat-bottomed balls of yarn in a shallow dyebath. The yarn can be already pot dyed or it can be white. All things to try.

Bionic · « **Reply #9 on:** December 01, 2012, 09:38:21 am »

It would be soo great if we were all near to each other. We could have one big dyeing/trying session.
Can you imagine the wild colours we could come out with?
Sally

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2012, 11:07:52 am »

Oooooh Sally, that would be soooo much fun!

I have now found a local spinning friend and we do the dyeing at her house - she has a range, and a microwave, and an empty house during the day, all of which I lack! - and we do have a blast every time, yes.

I bought some ends-of-lines going-cheap natural dyes and have no idea how to use them... I bought alum too, that seemed to be important... I do have a 'beginner's dyeing book' but it also covers spinning and fibre prep and I've loaned it out - must retrieve it, read up and give them a go!