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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Dyeing Wool Yarn


I've recently been dyeing wool yarn with Procion dyes and vinegar. What I've discovered is that wool absorbs dye differently than cotton. When I'm dyeing cotton fabric, it is easy to get the textures and shades that make hand dyes so appealing. But that darn wool yarn soaks up the dye! Case in point: I poured blue dye in a dish, put my wet wool yarn on top of the dye, then poured on yellow dye. During the heating process, the blue dye absorbed into the yarn, mostly overwhelming the yellow. There are some bits of yellow left, but nothing like I anticipated.

This picture is from one of my students - these are her colorwheel fabrics:

Thanks Mary R!

1 comment:

Shirley Goodwin said...

You may be interested in a different method for dyeing your wool, using acid dyes (though Procion ccould be used). Go to http://shirleygoodwin.blogspot.com/search?q=tutorial