Housekeeping
Welcome to the world of dying fiber and my experiments with color! I was asking around on a few forums for a color recipe and discovered dye recipes are trade secrets. Secrets don't make friends so I'm putting my recipes out there for the world. There are plenty of happy accidents to be found here. Seriously, I called my first dye batch "Progression of a Bruise" so I'm not an expert, I'm an experimenter and instead of keeping a tiny notebook that I'll lose when I need it, I decided to put the info online in hopes that I can find it later and someone else may be able to use it.
All dye swatches are 5 gram hanks of Falkland Top (from Yarn Barn of Kansas) and 5 gram mini skeins of Plymouth Yarn's "Dye for me" in happy feet (90% superwash merino/ 10% nylon sock weight). I presoak in hot water until the fiber is saturated.
The basic dye bath is approx 2 cups water and two TBS white vinegar in an old slow cooker, so total immersion here since I want color. I set the slow cooker to high and process until the bath exhausts. I use a standard dye stock solution of 1 tsp dye powder to 1 c hot water so any measurements of dye added are from the solution, not the powder directly unless noted. I do try to keep my dyestock warm. I put the jar of dyestock into the slow cooker water as I'm waiting for my fiber to pre-soak to try to not shock the dye so much that it separates or clumps when it gets added to the dye pot.
For the hand-spun mini skeins, I spin them on my Lendrum and chain-ply to try to get more or less consistent color. My spins come out about fingering/sock weight after fulling and drying, with a few thicker and a few thinner spots and I get about 20 yards in a mini.
Now, on to the color!
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| "Progression of a Bruise" in Border Leicester roving |
All dye swatches are 5 gram hanks of Falkland Top (from Yarn Barn of Kansas) and 5 gram mini skeins of Plymouth Yarn's "Dye for me" in happy feet (90% superwash merino/ 10% nylon sock weight). I presoak in hot water until the fiber is saturated.
The basic dye bath is approx 2 cups water and two TBS white vinegar in an old slow cooker, so total immersion here since I want color. I set the slow cooker to high and process until the bath exhausts. I use a standard dye stock solution of 1 tsp dye powder to 1 c hot water so any measurements of dye added are from the solution, not the powder directly unless noted. I do try to keep my dyestock warm. I put the jar of dyestock into the slow cooker water as I'm waiting for my fiber to pre-soak to try to not shock the dye so much that it separates or clumps when it gets added to the dye pot.
For the hand-spun mini skeins, I spin them on my Lendrum and chain-ply to try to get more or less consistent color. My spins come out about fingering/sock weight after fulling and drying, with a few thicker and a few thinner spots and I get about 20 yards in a mini.
Now, on to the color!
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