Category: Dye Page 3 of 14

While the yarn was curing, I decided to put a few pieces of fabric into the dye bath and see what would happen. I mordanted a piece of silk with alum acetate and then folded, stitched, clmaped and tied them. I left them in the dye bath for a week. The daily temperature has been in the high 80F. In the pot, I think it reached about 100F.

This is what the fabric scraps looked like after a week. It took several days before the color started to show, but once it did, it developed quickly. I will let it cure for a few days before I rinse them.

The dye bath still had color but it really started to smell. So, out it went.

I pulled these 2 skeins out from the dye bath a week ago. I was not able to get it to rinse clean so I left it out to cure for the week. Today, I put it back in rinse water and color is still coming out. I’ve never had madder to this before. I’m not sure what to do next. I can’t use it as long as the color continues to come out of it.

The above photo isn’t representative of the final color. The color is rather weak when the yarn is dry.

Well, if I hadn’t bricked it before, I certainly have now!

I turned the stove on to warm the bath up while I attended to some guild business online. Needless to say, things took longer than expected and the pot came to a full boil.

I’ll check the color this evening, after it has had a chance to cool off. I’m expecting a nice brick color.