I named the first dye class I taught “No-Fear Dyeing,” with the subtitle “If you can cook a potato, you can dye yarn.” Over the years students have told me that the name of that class gave them confidence to try dyeing. I hope you will feel the same way!
Different types of fibers require different types of dyes. Since this book focuses on dyeing protein fibers, including wool, alpaca, mohair, and angora, I used acid dyes for most of the projects. Most plant-based fibers, such as cotton and linen, require a different kind of dye.
The simplicity of acid dyeing has spoiled me against dyes of any other type. All you need is a protein fiber, dye powder, white vinegar, and water. It’s as simple as that! Commercial acid fiber dyes are available in many yarns shops and at fiber fairs, as well as through Internet Web sites (see appendix for suggestions).
If you’re a beginner, you may want to use premixed colors from dye manufacturers. I built my confidence by using many of the blues and greens offered by the Cushing Dye Company. Try mixing your own colors by using dyes that the individual manufacturers designate as their primaries. For instance, Cushing calls its primary dye colors Cherry, Canary, and Peacock. When buying from the various dye companies, ask which are their primaries. (For more information on primary colors, see pages 68–69.)
Just because natural substances come from the earth does not mean they are safe, nontoxic, or more sustainable. It’s sometimes assumed that people who use natural dyes care more about the environment than those who use acid dyes. However, responsible use of any substance, natural or man-made, requires understanding something about the materials themselves and how they might affect the environment.
I’ve used natural dyes made from walnuts, insects, and flowers, and they do have a place. It’s fun to grow your own flowers and then use them to achieve the pale, subtle colors that result from natural dyes. But just because the dyes are natural doesn’t mean they’re better for the environment or for the fiber. Many mordants (chemical substances that make the dye bond with the fiber) are toxic, and some are no longer readily available. In addition, the amount of water needed to rinse the extra dye and mordants out of the fiber is often excessive.
You may be surprised to discover that your oil and vinegar salad dressing has the same level of acid as the dyes I use. In fact, there are many products you eat and use in your daily activities that are more acidic than the dye solutions I recommend.
The dye that is familiar to most people is Rit dye, which is designed to dye both animal and plant fibers. Rit is a “union” dye, which means that it consists of two types of dye: one works on animal fibers, such as wool, and the other works on plant fibers, such as cotton. If you place a wool sweater and a pair of cotton jeans in the same Rit dyebath, both will get dyed.
If, on the other hand, you place just the wool sweater in the bath, it will be dyed, but all of the dye sitting there waiting for plant fibers will remain, only to be washed down the drain. The converse is also true: if you place only the cotton jeans in the bath, they will be dyed, but all of the dye waiting for the animal fibers will remain. Since in this book we’re focusing on animal fibers, we don’t need a union dye, and in fact, we would be wasting the portion of the dye formulated for plant fibers if we used it.
Sometimes the most challenging part of dyeing fiber is making yourself jump in and apply color to your yarn, so here are some ideas for getting your feet wet with no stress. We’ll start with paper and then move on to yarn on the next page.
Before you even touch fiber, it can be fun to play around with color, using food coloring or watercolors and different kinds of papers. You’ll gain confidence and become familiar with what happens as colors gradate and mix. I especially like using paper towel for exploring the way a material takes dye: it’s similar to watercolor paper, which you might also use for this purpose. Save your samples to remind you of what you like or don’t like. On the side of each paper, use a permanent marker to jot down the colors you mixed. These can be useful records for the future. Be sure to keep them in a safe place. It would be sad to see a family member wiping up a spill using the paper towel with your favorite combination on it!
If you’re using food colors, dilute 4 drops of each color in 1 tablespoon of water in separate containers. Collect whatever papers you find in your recycling bin, including glossy papers, stationery, and newsprint. These various surfaces drink up or repel dyes in ways similar to those of many fibers you may want to work with in the future. This is what color mixing is all about: playing with drops of color and watching what happens.
1 Apply red. Using paper towel for your first try, start with red. Use the brush or Q-tip to apply different intensities of it on the towel. Begin with a very dark red, then gradually add water to create a very pale pink. Watch the way the color fades as it spreads to the outermost area. Notice that the color you apply is lighter after it dries (which is true no matter what fiber you use).
2 Apply yellow. Place a drop of yellow next to one of the reds. Let them mix right on the paper, and observe what happens when the colors drift into each other and form another color.
3 Apply blue. Add a drop of blue near the red and another drop of blue near the yellow.
4 Repeat on different papers. Using the same brush, repeat steps 1–3 on the other papers you collected. Note how the color beads up on some surfaces rather than penetrating the way it did on the paper towel.
Once you start thinking about the value of the fiber, it’s natural to worry about ruining it, whether you’ve spent the time and money to raise the sheep for fleece or purchased the fiber ready for dyeing. If this is the first time you’ve dyed yarn, choose a skein that you don’t really value, either emotionally or financially. This should take some of the anxiety out of your experiments. You probably have a stash, so that’s a great place to look. If your yarns are wool-synthetic blends, don’t worry. Remember, this is just practice, and you’ll learn something regardless of the fiber.
The dye in this example is food coloring, but you can also use pourable, ready-made, sugar-free drink or freezer pop mix. Check the label to be sure you get a mix that contains food coloring, and note what colors it contains.
Set up a work surface by placing a cookie sheet, glass pan, or spread-out plastic grocery bag on your kitchen counter — or simply work right in the kitchen sink. Choose a space that’s large enough for you to pour the food color onto the yarn.
1 Make yarn mini-skeins. Loosely wrap a length of yarn around your hand 10 times. Tie the beginning and end of the yarn together to secure the little skein, and place it on a flat surface. Make two more of these skeins.
2 Tie the mini-skeins. Cut three 6-inch-long pieces of yarn. Tie these pieces loosely around the skeins to keep the yarn from tangling.
3 Wash the skeins. To remove any animal oils that might prevent color from penetrating the yarn, immerse the skeins in the bowl of dishwashing liquid and water. Allow them to soak for a few minutes, then gently rinse out any excess detergent.
4 Soak the skeins. Immerse the skeins in the vinegar-water solution, pushing them gently into the water until they are covered. Let them soak in this solution for 30 minutes, then gently squeeze out any excess water and vinegar.
5 Dye the first skein. Place one of the skeins on the work surface. Pour some of the red coloring onto one half and some of the yellow on the other half. Notice that orange appears where the red and yellow overlap.
6 Dye the second skein. Pour blue coloring on one half of the second skein and red on the other half. Notice that purple appears where the colors overlap.
7 Dye the third skein. Pour yellow coloring on one half of the third skein and blue on the other. Observe that green appears where the yellow and blue overlap. Add a little red to the yellow, to create orange on this skein as well.
8 Place the skeins in a bowl. Wrap each skein separately in plastic wrap, so that the colors don’t run into one another, and place them in a bowl. Cover bowl with a lid. If you prefer to avoid the plastic wrap, place each one in its own small bowl and use saucers as lids. (You need the lids so that the yarn doesn’t dry out and the steam remains in the container.)
9 Apply heat. Place the bowl in a microwave oven on High for 2 minutes. Allow it to sit for about 2 minutes, then heat it on High for another 2 minutes. Note: You can also heat-set the dyes following any of the other steam methods described on pages 23–25.
10 Remove from heat. Once the fiber is cool enough to handle safely, use tongs or a spatula to remove the skeins from the bowl, and place them in the sink. Allow them to cool to room temperature.
11 Rinse the cooled yarns. Use room-temperature water to remove any remaining dye.
While you’re in the grocery store or kitchen cupboard, you might want to experiment with spices that are not only packed with flavor, but also full of rich color, such as turmeric (left) and chili powder (right).
If you’re anxious to get started, this project is a simple overview of the dyeing process. You may find it helpful to refer back to as you experiment with other projects in this book and beyond. The materials list for each technique includes the specific dye brand and color shown in the photos, but obviously, you should feel free to substitute your favorite colors!
To handpaint fiber, you simply apply color to selected areas by pouring dye solution from a small container or painting it on with a paintbrush (or foam brush). Although some dyers apply their colors with squirt bottles, I prefer using a cup. Squirt bottles sometimes “burp” out the dye mixture into areas where I don’t want it, whereas cups give me more control over where the color lands.
The handpaint technique is the one many fiber enthusiasts find the most exciting. And it offers more control than some of the other dye methods that we’ll explore in chapter 5, such as immersion dyeing and dip dyeing. For this project, we’ll use several dilutions of just one dye (monochromatic) to achieve gradations of a single color, an effect sometimes referred to as ombré.
METHOD
Fiber
1 Tie the yarn. Arrange your yarn into a skein and use scrap yarn to tie it with loose figure eights at several places around the skein. (For an illustration, see page 42.)
2 Soak the yarn. Place skein in the vinegar-water solution and let it soak for at least 30 minutes, or longer if possible, to ensure that all the air spaces disappear and all the fibers are thoroughly wet.
3 Remove excess water. Remove the yarn from the vinegar soak, squeeze out excess water, and hang or spread in a colander over a bowl to drip until just damp (see page 45).
4 Arrange the yarn in a bowl. Tuck a plastic trash bag in a bowl, and pull up the center of the plastic to make a sort of island. The bunched-up plastic keeps the dye from traveling across the bowl. I like to think of this set up as a “castle” (the bunched-up plastic) surrounded by a “moat” (the yarn). Arrange the skein of yarn around the circumference of the bowl.
Dye
5 Prepare the dyestock. Carefully following the safety measures outlined on page 12, place 1 teaspoon of dye powder in a 2-cup container, add a couple of tablespoons of tepid water, and stir to make a paste. Next, add boiling water to dissolve the paste, filling the container to the 1-cup mark. Stir to ensure that all the powder is dissolved. Let the dye cool.
6 Make the dye mixture. Measure the dye-stock in three separate 1-cup containers as follows: ½ teaspoon of dyestock in one, 1 tablespoon of dyestock in another, and 2 tablespoons of dyestock in the other. Add enough water to each container to make 1 cup of dye mixture. Note that you’ve created three different dilutions.
7 Apply the lightest dye mixture. With gloved hands, pour a small amount of the lightest dye mixture on a 3-inch section of the yarn or fiber. I like to start with a light color; you can always add more color, but you can’t take it away. Use the smallest amount of dye possible — just enough to saturate the yarn in that section but not so much that it pools underneath.
8 Work in the dye. Gently massage the dye into the fiber and examine the underside of the spot you dyed. The dye should saturate the yarn all the way through, but don’t allow it to pool under the yarn. If it does, mop it up with a paper towel or clean rag.
9 Apply the middle dilution. Add a small amount of the middle dilution about 2 inches away from the first. Use your fingers to coax the new color to blend with the original color. Let the colors mingle and mix, remembering to check the other side of the fiber to see if you are satisfied with the saturation there.
10 Apply the last dilution. Add the remaining dilution in the same manner.
11 Repeat the applications. Repeat steps 7 through 11 until you’ve worked your way all the way around the skein. Mop up excess dye.
12 Wrap the yarn in the plastic. Pull the sides of the plastic up over the skein and gather them together so that the skein is wrapped in plastic. Tie securely with a string. Poke several holes in the plastic to allow the excess steam to escape.
13 Apply heat. Place the bundle in a microwave oven, and set on High for 2 minutes. Allow to rest in the oven for 2 minutes. Check to see if the dyebath has turned to clear water. If not, process for another 2 minutes, or until the water clears. Note: You can also heat-set the dyes with any of the other steam methods described on pages 23–25.
14 Remove from heat. Once the fiber is cool enough to handle safely (room temperature), use tongs or a spatula to remove it from the oven.
15 Rinse the cooled yarn. Use room-temperature water to remove any remaining dye solution. (You can add a fabric softener, if you wish.) Ideally, all of the dye should be absorbed by the fiber. If not, either you applied too much dye or you did not heat-process long enough. Often a quick dip in a vinegar soak and additional heat processing helps the yarn accept more of the dye.
16 Spin dry. Remove excess water by hand or by putting it through the spin cycle of your washing machine (don’t allow water to run in while spinning). For small amounts of yarn, you can also use a salad spinner. Allow the fiber to dry at room temperature.
