Stasia's Place Of Grace

Friday, April 21, 2006

 

Today I experimented with the "hot pour" dyeing method described in the fabulously inspirational The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook.

I used the One Shot/Country Classics dyes in the following ratios to make three stocks:
1 tsp. Buttercup (yellow) in 4 oz. water for yellow stock;
1/2 tsp. Cherry (red) in 4 oz. water for red-fuchsia stock;
1/4 tsp. cherry and 1/4 tsp. Cornflower (blue) in 4 oz. water to make purple stock. I didn't mess with secondary shades today, figuring the dyeing method would give me enough variations of each color.

The primaries I use are "printer's primaries" and are more vivid than standard primaries. Apparently, this brand of dye requires a bit more per cup of water than Lanaset/Sabraset dyes do, probably because more jar space is taken up by the "extras" that are already in the dye (you don't need to add anything). Yellow is not as strong as the other colors so I used more.

I soaked 5 oz. of Wensleydale roving in 1 and 1/4 gallon of water with 1/4 tsp. Synthropol for 30 minutes. The water was 110 degrees (warm).

I drained the fiber and lifted it carefully to a stainless steel bowl with a flat bottom, and added water of the same temperature as the fiber so as not to shock and felt it with a temperature change. I added a "glug" of vinegar in the hopes that it would make the dye strike the fiber quickly. I then heated the water to 190 degrees F.

I made a mistake at the last step by adding too much water - it should have been just to the level of about 1.5 inches, and I had it at about 3 inches, so that the roving was floating on top with water space beneath. I also failed to keep the temperature of the water above 190 as I dyed. These two things combined made my individual colors not adhere quickly enough to the fiber, and my colors all ran a bit and combined more than I would have liked.

First I added the yellow in a "stripe" down the center of my bowl of jumbled-up roving. I waited, giving the dye a chance to exhaust. (See above for the reasons it never did.) I noted the water problem as my yellow spread throughout the bowl, and removed a few cups of liquid, which helped contain the dyes in the following steps. I then added a red sripe to one side, waited, and then added the purple in a stripe on the opposite side. I kept the bowl at a very low simmer for 10 minutes.

Simmering

I removed the bowl from heat and let it cool to room temperature. I should have let it cool overnight, but we needed the kitchen to prepare dinner, so as soon as the fiber was cool enough and I was able, I rinsed the roving in several changes of room-temperature water.

The dyebath never did exhaust, and I think that in addition to my too-much-water mistake and too-low-heat mistake, I did a too-much-dye-liquid mistake as well. But the concentration of the dye was better and stronger today than in yesterday's experiment, so I'm learning.

Here is the resulting roving.

The hot-pour method is supposed to result in lots of secondary color blends, and that's exactly what happened. The blue I got was quite unexpected! This wasn't what I was shooting for but I like it. This method was far less time-consuming than painting the individual roving lengths by hand, and very easy... but also far less predictable.

We are having company for dinner tomorrow, so no more dyeing for the time being. I think I'm going to cave in and order some dyes in the colors I really want, as experimenting with primary mixes is taking up too much time, and my Wensleydale roving is in short supply!

Have a wonderful weekend! Happy Earth Day!

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