An Experiment With Yarn and Daylilies

Karen L. brought this article to my attention. It should be of interest to anyone interested in natural dyeing as it uses alcohol to extract the dye. I will paste the entire article here, as these things are sometimes taken down and/or impossible to find later.

From https://www.knittingparadise.com/t-609083-1.html:

May 31, 2019 23:07:09   #

DaylilyDawn

Recently I did an experiment with yarn and my daylilies by taking alcohol and placing some of it in a jar with a lid. Then I took the flower petals off one of my daylilies, Buddy's Black Jack a red flower with a big black eye zone. I place the petals in the jar of alcohol and let it sit overnight. The next morning all of the color in the petals had been extracted by the alcohol and only white plant tissue was left and removed. I repeat that with several flowers over a period of days. The alcohol is going to be used as a dye. The experiment was to take a quarter of a cup of water and put in a small pot.Then I added 2 teaspoons of the alcohol. I soak a few inches of Knit Picks Swish DK weigh yarn in warm water and a splash of vinegar. Once the yarn was saturated, I placed it into the pot with the colored alcohol. I raised the water temperature to boiling and then turned it down to simmer for 10 minutes. Then Turned the heat off. The yarn was left to cool in the water. When the yarn was cooled I removed the yarn and washed it with a drop of dish soap. Then rinsed it very well and let it dry.It had been a rosy lavender. I repeated the dye process and got a deeper color. I also tested some Knit Picks Gloss lace weight in the color Sterling Gray. It turned the gray yarn a very pretty lavender color

Indigo Dyeing at Clair’s House

Indigo Dyeing at Clair’s House

Friday, November 23

You will experience the miracle of indigo dyeing in a vat--your fabric gets dipped into the dye, comes out pea green, and slowly turns indigo blue as the air hits it. 

This session will be an introduction to the process. My current dye vat can probably handle a total of three more pounds of material. Once you see how it’s done you can make your own vat at home and dye up to five pounds of your own fabric or yarn. 

Please bring a small piece of cotton, silk, or wool cloth OR a small skein of wool or cotton yarn. Wash the fabric or yarn, using Synthrapol fabric detergent or good old blue Dawn dishwashing detergent. Rinse well. You can bring your project dry or damp. 

Sample technique using marbles, rubber bands, and stitching

We will further prepare the cloth here.I will show you some of the shibori (Japanese manual resist dyeing) techniques I have learned so far. Here is a good tutorial if you’d like an intro to shibori: https://www.seamwork.com/issues/2015/08/shibori-dyeing

I use small blocks like these for clamping

I have some rubber bands, some marbles, and a few small wood blocks for clamping that I can share. I also have lots of vinyl gloves for everyone. You can bring more rubber bands, clamps or clothes pins, small pieces of wood (see above photo) and some strong cotton string or twine if you have some on hand. 

A short piece of PVC pipe (or even an empty wine bottle) can be used for bomaki shibori (pole wrapping). You can see what that looks like here: https://cynthia-reynolds.com/2010/04/29/bomaki-shibori-tutorial/. 

Get creative: I use these coffee pot parts for making designs on the clamped cloth. Just remember that any tools you use will have to be dedicated to dyeing from now on and can no longer be used for food preparation.

We will do the dyeing in my kitchen sink. You can wear old clothes if you are worried about getting the dye on you. I’ve had pretty good luck so far, having only dyed one of my hands when the glove leaked. I'll do the messy part--the dipping--to be sure that no air gets introduced into the dyebath. I've been practicing.

My first indigo projects

We will soak your cloth/yarn in water before dipping it in the vat. After dyeing, it will hang outside to drip dry. Please bring a plastic bag to carry your damp project home. You will be able to complete the rinsing and washing steps there. 

When you get your project home: Let it air for 24 hours then wash until no more blue comes off. Rinse well, then neutralize by soaking in a vinegar bath (1 tablespoon vinegar per quart of water) for at least 10 minutes, then rinse well. See https://blog.ellistextiles.com/2017/05/06/how-to-finish-indigo-and-a-natural-dye-book-in-the-works/

I've given you a lot of information here, but it's just the beginning. It'll be fun. It's grown-up tie-dyeing!

Clair Continues With Gradient Dyeing Experiments

Hand spun, hand dyed: All colors dyed with food coloring except for the blue, which was done with acid dye.

Completed shawlette

Detail of color changes

Clair Tries Overdyeing Yarn With Kool-Aid

This is a really fun and easy project. The hardest part was finding a good selection of Kool-Aid colors (oops, I mean flavors!). For Las Cruces folks, I found mine at Save Mart on Valley @ 3 for 99 cents. 

Use a natural fiber yarn and wear gloves to avoid burnt or colored fingers. 

Tie the yarn skein loosely and let soak in plain lukewarm water for at least 30 minutes. Gently squeeze out excess water.

If you have a vegetable garden and it is summertime, everything starts to look like a zucchini!

Dissolve Kool-Aid in a cup of warm water. I started with 2 packets of Very Berry (bright blue) for 2 ounces of yarn, but added a third packet later. 

Pour the dye mixture into a microwaveable bowl, add enough lukewarm water so that your yarn will be covered. Gently add the yarn and swish it very carefully (never agitate wool yarn unless you want felt).

Cover the bowl and microwave for two minutes. Let the yarn rest for 10 minutes. Repeat this cycle until the water is almost clear.

I found that after the first cycle, most of the color had been absorbed by the yarn. Because I wanted a deeper shade I added another packet of Kool-Aid dissolved in hot water and carefully poured it into the bowl after lifting the yarn out. The bowl went back into the microwave for a second cycle of 2 minutes. I removed the bowl from the microwave, took the lid off, and let the yarn cool in the water. 

When the yarn is cool, gently squeeze out the water, then wash it in warm sudsy water, rinse, and hang up to dry. 

Here is the result. Instead of a khaki and screaming green yarn I now have a deep teal variegated yarn which I like very much. 

Clair Deconstructs

Susan holds up Clair's really big sweater

Detail: This sweater was hand spun and dyed from wool from Clair's sheep
when she lived in Washington and New Hampshire

The sweater was too big for Clair and too heavy for southern New Mexico.
It has been deconstructed and is ready to become part of a new project.