Dyeing to get started

[Pandagirl]

I've spent the past few days preparing the carrier rods, degummed cocoons, nepps, thick and thin yarn and some sari eyelash yarn I bought to dye. My hardest decision is usually what colors. Since I didn't have a project in mind, I decided to use my favorites -- teal, purple, moss green, black and aztec gold.

I soaked the rods and separated them before soaking everything in a vinegar rinse overnight. Zed, I took your suggestion and roughed up the nepps with a couple of dog brushes in the hope they will take the dye and felt better.I used acid dyes I had mixed last year -- 1 teaspoon powder to 1 cup water. Since I wanted bright colors, I used the dye without diluting. The only exception was one batch of heather purple I used Jacquard green silk dye I had mixed purple, blue and black last year for another project.

        


I placed the items on saran wrap, colored them, wrapped them up and put them in the steamer for 30 minutes and let them sit overnight to cool. I had purchased the thick and thin yarn at a yard sale this summer. It was marked "wool" but it obviously wasn't. I had noticed a sheen when I took it out of the bag, but figured it had some nylon or something in it. You'll notice most of it is as white as when I put it in the wrap. Only the green label dye left a little color. Also, at the last minute I decided to do a red batch, but didn't have room in the pot so I let it sit overnight. I decided to rinse it out since it wasn't going to dye anyways. But some color did stay. I'll have to redo it with procion mx at a later time.

When I rinsed them out some of the darker colors and gold had to get a synthropol bath and a few more rinses. I'll have to make sure I use them on dark backgrounds since there will probably still be run off. The aztec was Idye. Too bad I didn't use the yarn in that. :-)

Besides the yarn I was disappointed in the sari eyelash. No where in the description of the product did it say it had a binding other than silk. Another MX project if I want to use it.

Now I have to think of how to use those weird looking cocoons. Any suggestions?

I did some snow dyeing yesterday and more nepps and silk today. They are cooling off so I'll have more tomorrow.

[MTRuth]

The silk pieces are really great Marilyn. I think that if you soaked the cocoons you could get them to come apart. I have seen the cocoons used to make kind of pod looking flowers. You just wind up one of your carrier rods that's in a complementary color and glue it inside the cocoon. If you put a piece of yarn or something through it beforehand, you can use them as book marks or to hang them up. I think I have some somewhere and I'll try to take a photo.

It is always disappointing when what you think you have really isn't wool or silk. Looking forward to the snow dyeing experiments. I snow dyed yesterday too.

[Pandagirl]

Thanks Ruth! I look forward to seeing your pictures. :-)

[Shepherdess]

Nylon isn't your problem it dyes with acid dye. it may be some sort of rayon(bamboo, corn etc). If it dyes with MX dyes that is probably what it is. Cocoons make nice ends on cords and make nice 3D flowers.

the colours on all the others came out nice.

[Pandagirl]

Thanks Ann! I didn't think nylon would be a problem, but didn't give rayon or bamboo a thought. It will be fun to figure out what to do with these cocoons. I appreciate the advice.

[halay]

Beautiful colours! I'm sure you'll be able to use also those fibers which did not come out as you wanted. As for cocoons you can make your own hankies. What you need is only a square frame. I've seen this video and it seems quite easy.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_OpFgQ4HTk

[Pandagirl]

Thanks Halay! I have a lot of variegated hankies but none in solids like these colors. I'll give it a try. You can never have too many silk hankies. :-)

[luvswool and dyestuff]

The colors are gorgeous, Pandagirl! I always wondered how those silk hankies are made. Will enjoy hearing about the transformation from cocoons to hankies…keep us posted please!

[Shepherdess]

Making hankies is fun we did it in a workshop once. we had little frames with a nail sticking up on each corner. Ours all had worms inside. we did some reeling too.

[zed]

You got some great rich colours, Marilyn

[Pandagirl]

Update on my dyeing adventures -- Results of snow dyeing.

I chose to snow dye a silk scarf and a piece of lilac crinkled silk -- although I believe it's not 100% since it shrank and is stretchy. I used midnight blue and teal.  The scarf was white, the crinkle was a lilac color. Since I used acid dyes I chose to dye some more carrier rods and nepps in saran wrap.  The yellow was the Jacquard green silk dye.

             

  The silk scarf had nice variation at the top end, but the middle and bottom were fairly solid. I'm not sure what I will do with this.  Since the scarf is fairly long I may cut off the part I like and use the more solid piece as a scarf. I didn't feel this turned out as well as ice dyeing I had done last year. But then I had used procion dyes. The crinkled silk shrank by half in width.  The original color is on the left in the right hand pic.  I'm not sure what the full fiber content is, but I have tried felting with this fabric and it is difficult.  I may do something with stitching.  Other than the brown the nepps and carriers the gray, red and moss colors were nice and bright.  The brown was more of a green gold color.

i tried redying the failed yarn and sari eyelash yarn yesterday.  I will have those results tomorrow.  Any suggestions?

[MTRuth]

Did you do the snow dyeing last time with acid dyes? I find that technique works best with Procion dyes. Procion dyes work fine with silk just not wool. Did you use dye powders or liquid dye? The dye powders give stronger results.

I think your nepps etc. look great. Can't wait to see how you use them.

[Pandagirl]

Ruth, I used Procion dyes for ice dyeing last time with silk and cotton blends. This was the first time using acid with snow or ice. I used powder. I can't wait to see how the nepps felt. They are nice and bright. I've actually had luck with Procion dyes and wool. Seems odd I know. I used Procion leftovers today on wool yarn, scrim and silk hankies. So, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

[MTRuth]

As long as you use vinegar Procion works fairly well with wool but it isn't as fade resistant to washing or sunlight.

[Pandagirl]

Ruth, I didn't use vinegar with the wool because I just threw it in with the scrim and silk hankies.  I'll have those pics tomorrow.


The eyelash and yarn did NOT improve with procion mx dyes. Which is strange because the orange dye was Idye which should dye polyester and nylon in addition to natrural fibers.  So, I don't know what the binder fabric is.  I had a silk scarf that I machine hemmed so at the last minute I decided to dye it using rubber bands as resists.  The ends turned out nice but the middle remained fairly white. I had a piece of the scarf I threw into the red dye.  I thought if the procion did take on the orange eyelash the red would be nice and rich. As you can see, the red silk turned out nice and bright, although on the orange side. All the items went thru another synthropol wash and rinse before and after dyeing.

I didn't want to waste the rest of the procion dyes so yesterday I cut some llama/wool yarn, scrim and silk hankies and used low immersion method in ziploc bags. My dyeing  adventures will continue ...