Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been working on quilting my guild challenge quilt and quilting a quilt for a friend. I'll have to see if she will allow me to post a photo f it when I am finished.
I thought that I would try and over-dye some to the reclaimed wool that I have been purchasing. So I weighed out a pound of wool and put it into my dye pot with some dye. I used the Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes from Dharma Trading. I know that a lot of wool dyers like Cushings dyes but these were what I had on hand from dying fabric. Dying cotton and dying wool are two different procedures. When you dye wool it needs to be heated up on the stove for quite some time and then left to cool. I got the wool dying instructions from the Dharma Trading site since I was using their dyes.
I think that I may have added a bit too much dye. I wanted very vibrant colours, so I added a lot of dye; but, these came out a bit darker than I wanted. I added a touch of blue to the mix so that is probably why.
They are all lovely shades of purple :) I wanted it to be burgundy but this is fine for my first attempt :) I have some more wool in the dye pot right now. This time I added half the amount of red, left out the blue, and, added just a touch of orange to the mix. So far it is more of a cherry red in the pot.
Isn't it amazing how a bunch of brown and grey plaids and tweeds can look so different when they are over-dyed? I just love the transformation and I love that these were all reclaimed wools that now look just like wool that you buy in stores. I'll post a picture of my second batch later hopefully.
2 comments:
The wool looks really good. It's amazing how they all match perfectly now. I'll be watching to see what you do with them.
Even if it wasn't what you intended, the colors are yummy. What fun to play with.
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