[SallyintNorth]

Such fun at a workshop with Dumfries' Guild yesterday! 


I have discovered I can make project pages public on Ravelry, so you should be able to see more, and read up how it's done, here.

[Bionic]

WOW, it looks fabulous. I'm definigtely going to look at how its done 

[mowhaugh]

beautiful!

[Greenerlife]

So lovely!  Exciting when stuff comes out so beautiful - going to have to do another batch myself now.

[Mammyshaz]

Wow, love the vibrant colours 

Just thinking today I must get brave and try the acid dyes I bought at woolfest. Your piccies are urging the brave out of me 

[SallyintNorth]

Go for it, Shaz.  It's FUN!!! 

[Lesley Silvester]

Wish I was nearer you, Sally, so I could watch how you do it. I'm not very good at following written instructions. I still have my dyes that I bought at Wonderwool. Just need to get myself a dye bath but I'm not sure what to get. Any suggestions?


I want to dye some wool to felt.

[SallyintNorth]

The washed fleece I dyed in the large stainless steel dog bowl came out with the colour much stronger on the tips of the locks.  One of the Guild members was oohing and aahing over it, saying it would be gorgeous for felt.

I don't think it could be much easier than how we did it on Saturday, but I do understand that it's much better to see than to read (and better yet to do.)

I looked for a good vid on YouTube to recommend to you - but couldn't find one I thought any good... 

Interweave do a Dyeing in the Kitchen vid you can buy as a download.  It's Deb Menz, and covers pretty much all you'll ever need to know.  Don't pay full price though - wait for them to have a sale, I've bought vids off them for as little as 30% of the RRP and I don't think I've ever paid more than 80%

Otherwise, would your local Guild or a nearby spinning group do dyeing some time?  In the last 12 months, we've done a session at my local group, two at my own Guild, and this one I went to at a neighbouring Guild.

Otherwise, t'other Sally does dyeing... she's not so far from you, is she?

[SallyintNorth]

As to a dye bath - just get a pan that's big enough for the quantity of fibre you want to dye at one go.  Stainless or enamelled won't affect the colours, aluminium and copper do affect the colours.  On Saturday we were steaming using regular medium-sized saucepans with colanders on top of them!  And 'kettle dyeing', where the fibre is immersed in the water, using very large stainless steel dog bowls!  Jam pans would work fine too, or just a large saucepan. 

[Bionic]

I bought a large jam pan from flea bay for my dyeing. It isn't the quality that I use for my jam but its fine for dyeing and it was cheap.
Other than that I have been dyeing (did some yesterday) in the microwave. You only need plastic containers for that and an old microwave.
I am currently dyeing some coloured fleece so the colours are muted which I love. Not sure what I am doing with them next but may blend them a bit and then crochet something

[Bionic]

The batts from my coloured ryeland that I dyed yesterday, 10 mins in the microwave, I left to cool down overnight. I have just rinsed them and put them in the salad spinner to get most of the water out.
Here they are drying on the bathroom floor.
I don't yet have enough to make anything so will need to prepare some more batts and then do some more dyeing. I am pleased with it so far though.

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, yummy!

Are you very organised, and document your proportions, amounts, etc, or do you just take the outcome as it comes?

[Fleecewife]

Isn't it such fun when you see white or grey fleece magically turn into beautiful colours     I love seeing, with acid dyes, how the water is clear afterwards - we could all probably be dunked for witchcraft
 
When I dyed my big jumper a few months ago I dyed the yarn, not the batts, and I did it all in one go so I would have the same colour throughout. I am very lucky though to have the old Baby Burco boiler my Dad used to use for dipping the turkey eggs before they went into the incubators. It's maybe a foot across and 18" deep, with an element under the bottom and holds up to a kilo of yarn.  This means I can dye anywhere with a power supply, and don't have to use my kitchen which is not such a good idea, mixing dyes with foodstuffs.
But I'm only too well aware that finding a Burco or Baby Burco is a rarity, unless you haunt the dispersal sales.
I also have a cheap stainless steel stewpot, which was surprisingly cheap in a shop sale, but it holds less than the BB.
 
I also dye in the oven, using steel turkey trays from Tesco, well covered with foil.  Those let me do rainbow and patterned dyeing.
 
 
Just seen your new post Sallyitn - I am positively anally retentive in recording my weights and proportions, largely because I used to sell hand-dyed yarn, so had to be able to reproduce the colours fairly accurately.  I have some records of colours achieved by using this number of drips of this colour and that number of drips of that colour     I'm not so bad now as I'm just doing one offs for myself.

[Bionic]

No, I am not organised at all. I just add a bit here and there. Shush, don't tell my spinning club.


I think I am going to crochet a tank top where the rib is natural and the body is just blended from the colours that I have dyed so in this case no real need to be specific. If I were going to do something where the accuracy mattered then I would have to document.


I do have a burco boiler. OH bought it on eBay for sterilising his bee keeping stuff but I am allowed to use it. The previous owner had it for dyeing too but so far I have only used it for washing fleece.

[Lesley Silvester]

There are quite a few burco boilers on ebay atm but none in my area or very expensive. Looks like a trip to Tesco for a large saucepan.


My spinning club is does have workshops but nothing planned on dying just yet. I'm hoping there will be a felting one this autumn.


I'm getting really enthusiastic now. 


I also have found some knitting patterns for felted items that I want to have a go at. Not with handspun though as I am still struggling with that.