I finally took the plunge and did some test dyeing on Saturday with natural dyes. For this experiment I decided to do both bits of fiber (wool and alpaca) and different protein yarns. The fiber was put into a mesh laundry bag:
And I added ties to the small mini skeins I was dyeing ( note that the blue note has a different order of skeins than in the photo):
My dyeing station was out on my deck to reduce exposure to the chemicals. I mordanted the fiber and yarn overnight in a pot, then set up the dye station – a small side table topped by a Cusimax cast-iron electric hot plate topped by a large pot I got at Salvation Army. Other materials used included the mordant, Botanical Colors liquid dyes, a wooden spoon and measuring spoons:
I decided to try for an Aqua color which uses both the Saxon Blue dye and the Myroloban extract. It wasn’t clear what percentages of each I should use, so I did equal amounts.
The pot started looking like this:
and ended by looking like this:
There was still a fair amount of dye leftover – and I think it was mostly the Myroloban, so I’ll have to take a look to see if the proportion should be changed in the future.
After rinsing, I dried the yarn and fiber on the balcony:
The results – definitely variation among the fibers dyed:
and the yarns as well:
This is some nitpicks Wool of the Andes – and it turned out with a blended look:
1 reply on “Test Dye”
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