East Kentucky Fibers

Well, I haven’t blogged in about a hundred years, but I think I’m ready to get back in the saddle.  I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to blog about, but I’m going to start this revival off by detailing the dye process I use on the fibers in my shop.

The fiber I’ve been dyeing the most is Rambouillet wool combed top from Crystal Creek Fibers.  More recently I’ve started buying Merino wool closer to home from the Ohio Valley Natural Fiber Mill in Sardinia, OH.  That combed top looks just like the Rambouillet to me and feels just as soft.  The wool used for this tutorial is the Merino.

Once upon a time I measured and weighed out a piece of top that was 1.5 ounces and what I thought was an easy length to handle.  When I’m dyeing wool to sell I like to stay close to this weight, but when I’m dyeing for myself I just eyeball it.  I’ll put up a picture of my pieces of top hanging from the fridge so you can get a length idea.

There’re several things you’ll want to have on hand before you start tearing up the kitchen.

Wool- I’m using Merino combed top, but other wool types would work as well.  I’ve dyed Cotswold wool locks right out of the washtub and I’ve dyed handspun and millspun yarn this way.

Dyes- I’m using jacquard acid dies.

A Pot- You’ll want a medium size cooking pot to heat up your wool.  They say it’s dangerous to dye wool in the same pot that you cook food in, I imagine the dyes react with the metal in some unhealthy way, so get you a pot especially for dyeing.  Last summer when I was dyeing constantly, I thought I’d use bigger pots and get all this work done in less time, but the bigger pots just don’t work as well in my opinion. They’re hard to all fit on the stove if you’re doing 4 at once, and maybe it’s their size, but the heat doesn’t seem to get all the way through like on a smaller pot, so the dyes don’t always take as well.

squeezie bottles- I had a hard time finding my squeezie bottles but ended up finding them in the wedding section of wal-mart, with cake decorating sort of stuff, but since then I’ve seen them in hobby lobby and other places.  I use these when I do solid colors and multi-colors, they make life easier.  Get ones with little lids if you can so you can shake the heck out of them without spraying dye all over the kitchen and your pretty clothes.  Sometimes the screw nozzles leak even when they’re used properly, so always be prepared and wear your . . .

Gloves!- Wear gloves.  It doesn’t matter how careful you are, if blue dye is in the same room as your ungloved hands, your fingertips will become blue.  I like using thin latex gloves when I’m actually dyeing and handling undyed wool.  When the wool is coming out of the pot and scalding hot, it helps to have on heavy scrubbing gloves.  To handle the heat, I also use . . .

Long wooden spoons - These are handy when handling hot wool and when gently sinking wool under water.  I lost one of my spoons, so I couldn’t demonstrate my hot wool handling technique, but it’s possible to wrap hot wool in a loose figure 8 around the handles of two wooden spoons without burning yourself, helping a little bit of dye water out and separating the one piece from the others.

Stove and Sink - You’ll need a trusty stove and a good sink with hot water on tap.  It’s helpful to have one of those sinks with two basins, but you can do it with one.

Acid-  To set this dye, you’ll need heat and acid.  You can use vinegar if you’ve just up and decided to dye wool one day, but I really advise against it.  I used vinegar for a long time and I took so many pains to get that smell out of the wool that I ended up felting some and ruining it.  I use citric acid crystals from Dharma Trading.  They don’t smell, they don’t weigh much, and I’m sure it costs less to buy a little baggie of these than to buy gallon after gallon of stinky old vinegar.

Plastic Spoons- it’s nice to have a few white plastic spoons on hand to scoop dye and acid crystals and also to check the color of your dye water.

Tidiness- As you can imagine, dye stains stuff, so I recommend spreading out a big white trashbag over your workspace to protect your countertops.  It’s hard to see and address accidental spills on a black one, so spring for the fancy white ones.  You’ll want plenty of paper towels on hand or a couple dedicated cloth ones.  I like to have a jar full of water to stick used dye spoons in quickly so I don’t have to stop and rinse them.

Soap - I used to wash my wool in laundry detergent, but didn’t get good results, so I use Eucalan wool wash.  You might think it’s silly to spend money on extravagant soap, but I think it’s worth it.  One bottle goes a long way, it smells refreshing and not overpowering, and you don’t have to rinse it out afterwards, which means less chance of felting in my book.

So, that’s the stuff I like to take care of before I get this business started.

*now one note before I start.  The biggest danger to your wool in this process is felting.  Felting occurs when wool is agitated in wet conditions.  That includes the passing of water through the wool from a faucet or from wringing.  Imagine that the wool is more fragile than you think is reasonable for a wad of hair, and treat it accordingly, or you might end up with a matted lump.  Always be aware and do all you can to keep this from happening.

1.  Preparing your dyes - I’ve never measured out dye or acid, just sort of gone about it all trial and error.  I’ve taken pictures to show how much of stuff I use.  In one of these little bottles, I put a 1/3 or 1/4 spoonful of dye and a spoon of citric acid powder.  I fill the bottle to the top with warm water, put the cap back on, and shake it up.  If I want a really strong color, I’ll add more dye.  If I want a pale color, I’ll add less.  I haven’t had good results getting a pale color by using less of a concentrated dye, I tend to get a piece of white wool with blotchy patches of dark color.  For pale colors, go on and mix several bottles of diluted dye.  I wanted darker colors with this wool, so I went ahead and made them pretty strong.  Make plenty so you don’t have to stop in the middle of what you’re doing and make more.  You might be able to plan on a full squeezie bottle per 1.5 ounce piece of wool, give or take a bit.

2. Preparing your wool - To prepare the combed top to be dyed, I first wrap it in loose bundles.  As I wrap these, I try to put in a little bit of twist so the top will stay together in the dyepot and the various baths.  You don’t want them too tight though.  Fill your sink up with warm water and set the bundles into the water.  They should sink eventually on their own, but it probably won’t hurt to press them very gently down into the water if you’re in a hurry for some reason.  The bundles should be soaked through before you proceed.  Wool is naturally waterproof and our dye mixture would bead up and run off of dry wool.

3.  Loading the pot and applying the dye - Lift a bundle of wool from your dyepot and gently unwrap it.  It doesn’t hurt to let a small bit of the water drain off, otherwise you’ll make a big mess between the sink and pot.

Wool can be placed in any configuration into your dyepot.  I use a spiral pattern and set the first piece of wool into the dyepot.

When I’m dyeing with multiple colors like in this post, I’m very particular about how I have my workspace set up.  I set my bottles in a circular pattern so I know exactly where to apply the dye to the wool in the pot each time and I never move the pot itself or I’ll forget what goes where.  Squirt your dye onto your wool in whatever pattern makes you happy.  If you want to avoid mixing colors between layers, stick to something simple and easy to reproduce, like one half one color, one half the other color.  After you apply dye to the first layer, it should be sitting in a puddle of dye, but not be completely submerged.

When you’re happy with what you have, grab another piece of wool and do the same thing.  This time, be careful to coil the piece of wool only exactly where you want it to be.  It isn’t a great idea to set the wool down in one area, then pick it up and move it to another area, that would mix your colors to an extent.  This second layer and the layers after won’t be swimming in dye, but check every so often to be sure the dye is penetrating all through the wool.  You may want to press very gently down on the wool before starting a new layer.  Continue this until your pot is full about 2 inches from the top.

4. Heat - Heat is a big factor in felting, so this is a delicate matter.  You don’t want to let your pot boil, that would cause felting and may also cover your floor and stove with boiling hot dye, which is a bad idea.  You might begin the heating process on a medium low heat setting, but keep a close eye on it and reduce it to low for the long haul.  I use a pot with a lid and keep the lid on throughout the dye process.  Once the heat penetrates through to the top of the pot, you can leave it alone for 15 or 20 minutes to work its magic before you start checking on it.  At this point you might want to add a few cups of water to the pot. A lot of the dye has already taken to the wool, but there are still free particles that need to find their place in the universe.  Having extra water, and sometimes a little extra acid, helps this process I’ve found.  You can test your pot periodically to see when it’s finished cooking.  Take one of your white plastic spoons and dip a little bit of the water from the top of the pot.  If it’s colored, you’ve got a ways to go.

Let it cook some more.  If the water at the top is clear, carefully probe deeper into the pot and check the water at the bottom.  If that’s also clear, you’re ready to move on.

** If you just can’t get that water clear no matter what you do, you might have put in too much dye, which is frustrating.  Sometimes it’s hard to wash all the excess dye out of wool and you’ll end up with wool that bleeds all over the place every time you wash it.  Before you decide that all you can do is try and wash the excess out, add more water to your dyepot mixed with acid and let that simmer.  If your water still doesn’t come out clear, soak another piece of wool and submerge it with the stuff in the pot, that piece might absorb some of the excess dye.

5 Washing - You’ll want to wash excess dye and acid out of your wool no matter how good a job you did getting the water to come out clear.  Fill up your sink with as hot of water as will come out of your tap and a nice drizzle of soap.

Gently lift your wool pieces from the pot into the full sink of hot soapy water and leave them alone for a while.

That water might become tinged with color.  Don’t be alarmed, just repeat the process very gently.  This is when having a double sink is handy.

I usually stop after the second wash, and my wash water is usually crystal clear by then.  In extreme cases, like with black or navy dyes, I would need to soak them once more.

Gently hang them to dry someplace.  Ideally, you would lay them flat to dry.  When they hang and drip, some felting will occur, especially at the tips.  It’s just not practical for me to lay a billion pieces of wool flat anyplace, so I hang them and pull the felted tips off before I list them on Etsy.  It’s great to hang them outside in warm weather, but if it’s rainy or cold, you can hang them someplace with a fan or really good ventilation.

To clean up your mess while your wool is drying and while you’re planning what wonderful things you’ll make from your beautiful new wool, I recommend filling a sink full of water and just soaking your bottles, spoons, and everything  else with dye on it for a while.  That’s the best way to get dye out of hard to reach places, just letting it soak.

When it’s all said and done, you should have beautiful and easy to handle pieces of handdyed wool!