The original thread was an indigo blue that was the result of the red dye washing out completely from the purple that I was trying to achieve. Above you see the first one was one that I left in for way to long to achieve the color I was looking for. Yes, it is a beautiful rustic mauve color but not exactly what I was looking for. The rest of the threads were left in for no more than 2 minutes to achieve the purple that I have been looking for. The thread colors are not uniform within the skein but that adds to its character. I have in mind to make some hatbands from this thread at a future point.
The skein that I did the other day:
This one was a double immersion where I suspended the skein half at a time in a jar of dye. Who knew that skewers could be so useful in this process. I will most likely turn this skein into either a narrow hatband or a flower to use on a hatband.
For small batches and quick and dirty dyeing, RIT dye does work well on plant fiber threads. For hand painting thread I will need to go to something like Procion MX dye for a different sort of processing. This will require me asking hubby to order various dye powders and fixatives so that I can move on to the next step in this process.
I am still working on getting answers to some of the questions that I have about the process of hand painting thread with multiple colors. I will post as soon as I have the answers straightened out in my head.
Guess I am off to clean up my work room to find my skein winder so I can do bigger batches and have a much cleaner place within which to work on my tatting projects.
Happy Tatting
Arial - Tatting Faerie
Try Dharma Trading web site. They have all the supplies needed for dying. ( except thread-Handy Hands for that), Fiber reactive dye is what you want. Soda ash makes the thread take the dye. And you need heat ie. wrap in plastic wrap and give it 4 hours in a 100 degree oven. Study tie dye directions and you will get an idea of process.
ReplyDeleteI did find more of the instructions that I was looking for there. Thank you. I have found a pretty good site for bulk thread (not that I don't love shopping at Handy Hands), but the other site has a pretty good size offering of the white thread that I will need. As I said above, this will require me to get hubby to let me purchase the supplies that I will be needing for this process. Unfortunately summer is our lean time as he teaches fewer courses than during the regular fall and spring terms.
DeleteI want so badly to try my hand at dyeing thread, but I think my hubby would flip if I started a new hobby. The house is full of thread and yarn from my knitting and tatting endeavers, and there are always at least half dozen projects in process at any given time. But that hasen't stopped me from reading and learning about the process. Here is one site that I found very informative
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml
Good luck and I look forward to seeing your results!!