Making Stuff, Week 8: Crazy Dye

Posted: March 5th, 2010 | Author: Hellchick | Filed under: Making Stuff Series, Spinning | 3 Comments »

It’s a shorter entry this week (and given my propensity toward huge, tome-like posts, I’m sure you’re glad for that) as I only have a little to show off. I finished the sock yarn that I began from last week’s dyed roving, and that was really an enjoyable spin.

It’s just 100% superwash Blue-Faced Leicester, no fancy blends this time. I should have taken the picture with a coin for scale because finally I spun a true sock-weight gauge — it’s nice and small, perfect for about a size 2 or 3 needle. It’s 3-ply but I chose not to chain ply it; I really wanted to just see the colors interplay the way they did for a change of pace, and I really like the result. I still have a few ounces left, and now that I’ve gotten my hands used to spinning such a fine gauge singles for this weight of 3-ply yarn I’m going to blend the remaining BFL with alpaca from Benz and some nylon, just like I did with my Falkland sock blend, and then knit that into socks to compare with the Falkland ones, which I’m almost finished knitting. I’ll be able to compare wear and feel then and see what I prefer as the end result more. I love experimentation!

And speaking of experimentation, I snapped a quick picture of the raw materials for my next art yarn project.

I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing with it yet, but it’s going to be called “Green Apple Martini & Keep ‘em Comin’.” That’s more BFL that I dyed last week as well as some mohair locks I dyed a cherry red that’s even more beautiful and perfect a shade than I imagined it would be.

And there’s more experimentation! This weekend I embarked on some more dye experiments. The goal: to get a sage green. I thought this would be easy…I was wrong.

Having been reading Color in Spinning by Deb Menz and with Matt to advise me in how color as it relates to mixing paint works, I sat down to figure out how to achieve a sage green with the Jacquard acid dyes I have. To me, sage green is a gray green or silvery green, so going from what I’ve learned about paints, dyes, and color theory it seemed that I should take a green and add some red, the color opposite from it, in order to bring it closer to gray. I decided to try this with a couple of greens but keeping the red constant, and going with a roughly 80/20 blend of green to red. The fiber I used was commercially prepared Merino in one-ounce groups.

So, there’s some pretty unexpected results there. Let’s break it down.

First I went with Emerald. I mixed the dyes in the pot and the water looked exactly the right shade: a gray green. So I let that in the dye bath and as I watched over time, I noticed that, fairly quickly, the water became bright blue and the roving turned green. That seemed odd; it was as if the blue molecules that formed from the red addition just simply didn’t absorb. I left it in the dye bath the right amount of time but it just didn’t want to absorb that blue, and the result was picture number one.

I moved on to Chartreuse with Fire Red. Chartreuse has a yellow base and I was pretty sure I was going to get something orange because of that, but for the sake of science I pressed on anyway. And I think the results are actually kind of cool even if it’s not what I wanted — that result is picture number two. Picture number three was Brilliant Kelly Green, another yellow-base green dye, with Fire Red. Interesting tan shade and something I may want to use down the line.

What you see in picture number four, though, was the most unexpected result. After talking to Matt about my results from the Emerald and Fire Red he suggested I try brown instead of red, so I pulled out my Chestnut dye, which is kind of a burgundy brown. When I first mixed that with Emerald the dye bath seemed to be just the right color again and it looked promising. But once again, as I watched, blue dye formed and didn’t seem to be absorbing into the roving. But what’s really weird is that when I pulled the roving out, it looked highly variegated, as if I’d painted the roving with two different colors, not mixed two dyes evenly in the dye bath. I have no idea why this happened. The green that did form is, for the most part, almost the sage green I’m going for but not quite (and it’s still a lovely shade of green in its own right), and the roving is mottled with chestnut. It’s as if the colors separated again once I mixed them, but some of the chestnut did seem to contribute to the green. I’m really surprised that happened and I’m not sure how to prevent that from happening again.

I’m still somewhat confused about the results in pictures 1 and 2. I’m trying to get some answers on the dye list I’m on, and they’re all surprised that I chose to add red, but I’m certain that’s what I read in Menz’s book. They’re suggesting adding yellow instead to the Emerald, so I may give that a try and see what I get, even though I can’t see how that’s going to add gray to the Emerald. But that’s why we experiment, eh?

And one last thing that’s fiber-related: I’ve started a Facebook page for The Glorious Grazers, the name of our little farm and yarn business. So if you’re on Facebook please make yourself a fan!

Well, I managed to get this written before I head off to work today so I can still make it into Fiber Arts Friday! Check out all the other great things people are doing with fiber, and I’ll see you again next week when I hope to have my green apple martini in hand.

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