A Good Day to Dye

Today was dye day at The Merry Spinster. Last time I did a round of dyeing I used my kitchen which proceeded to stink up the house. So now, baby's got a new attitude. I set up a dye station outside and it worked much better.

Turns out we have a brand new Coleman stove we've never used so I went up to OSH and got some propane canisters and set her up.

I'd planned on dyeing one pound of merino wool in two half pound batches. The first was going to be a lovely bordeaux color by dyeing it in Lac at a 3% solution. Lac has a ton of sediment so you have to dissolve it and let it sit at least an hour, preferably overnight, to let the sediment settle to the bottom and then you must strain it into the dye pot, trying to avoid getting sediment into the pot. Well all was going well till I knocked over the cup of Lac ALL OVER THE KITCHEN FLOOR. It's rare I get that angry. I was furious. It was the last of that dye stuff I had AND it made a huge mess.

I was able to salvage some of it so instead of bordeaux I got strawberry.

I'm not super pleased with this but I already have some ideas on what to do with it.

The second batch, which I didn't photograph yet, was dyed with 3 tablespoons of Cutch and 1 teaspoon of Logwood Grey. It's supposed to give a deep chocolate brown color. I'd have to say it's not as dark chocolate as I'd like but I have some ideas for working with it as well. I think some of what made it not as dark as I'd like is that I mordanted the second half pound in the same mordant bath as the first. I mixed up the right amount of mordant for a full pound and then did one half of the wool in the first batch and the other half next. Maybe there wasn't enough alum left in the mordant bath to help get a really dark chocolate color. It's more the color of chocolate milk. I'm seeing a neopolitan yarn in my future.

So all in all, I'm happy with the new set up. I was able to do all I needed out there although two burners going simultaneously would have really rocked. But as you can see, I can't fit both pots on that stove at the same time. Okay can't wait to see how this stuff looks dried and how it's going to spin.