Dyeing Wool

[snapcrafty.livejournal.com]

So, this weekend I tried my hand at dyeing wool. Would you like to see?
image heavy, be warned.



First you have to soak the wool. It has to be fully saturated not just dampened. I'm not sure how long you have to soak, I did it for half an hour and it worked for me. And, oh yeah, preheat the oven now, too, to 350 degrees, Fahrenheit, baby.


Ok, so I bought a bunch of dye. I'm a sucker for color, so I bought a bunch, but you can just buy the primary colors and some black and mix them yourself using black to darken. These are Jacquard acid dyes. They don't have acid in them, you add the acid yourself--vinegar! (But that comes later)


But, the dyes are toxic in their powder form, and not so good for the old lungs, so I went and looted, erm, borrowed some supplies from the lab.


Next, I went outside and scared the neighbors. Wearing my mask, I took about a teaspoon of powder and placed it in each little tube. You can use a cup or something else you don't care too much about. You won't be able to use it for food/drink anymore. I then filled each tube with water. These are the stock solutions and will be good for about a month, so I'm told. I'm going to try to freeze them. Don't add the vinegar yet, if you add them to the stock, then you will have to use all the stock that day and it won't keep. I then made different dilutions of the stocks with water to get different color gradations and added a glug of vinegar to each dilution. Experiment, it doesn't have to be exact. If I were to do it again, I would have made my solutions more dilute. My fiber came out very dark.


Next zig-zag the wool in an oven safe pan or tray that is *NOT METAL*. Do one layer at first. It should be more than damp but not soaking, we will make sure to add enough water so that the wool will be wet throughout the baking time. We don't want to singe it.


Now comes the fun. Take the dye and go to town. Pour and drizzle your dye solutions over the fiber however you want. You don't have to cover up all the fiber with dye. You can just drizzle it around. I used two colors and several dilutions to try to get a variegated effect. If you just want to dye a single color, I would suggest mixing up a large volume of your desired color dilution and fully saturating the wool. If you have more than one layer of wool, add the dye one layer at a time to ensure that each layer is getting dyed completely. The more vinegar you have in your stocks, the more the dye will take to fiber as you pour it. The wetter your fiber is, the more the dye will spread as it is cooked. I poured a bit of water into my dye pot just before stuck it in the oven to make sure my fiber wouldn't dry out. Also, make sure it isn't too close to the heating element so it doesn't burn. Safety first kids. Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F. You may check periodically to make sure your fiber isn't drying out.


When it's done take it out of the oven and allow it to sit and cool for a bit.
Then pour the contents of the pot into a sink full of hot water and a tiny bit of shampoo. DO NOT agitate the fibers, you want to avoid felting which is an irreversible intermingling of the wool fibers that creates felt. This occurs via rubbing the fibers and by any sudden temperature changes. So, no touching! Allow it to soak for a while, then drain the water and fill the sink again with hot water to rinse. Finally lift the fibers out and gently, without rubbing squeeze out the excess water and place the wool in a towel. Press on the towel to absorb the water.


Then hang it up to dry. You'll need to shake it out to fluff it up after it's dry, then it should be ready to draft.
You can't see the color variegation very well here, but I got some cool effects. I was very happy with this technique.

*this is my first time dyeing, if you have any expertise to add please do*