Cold Pad Dyeing
Materials you will need:
Mix the Dyes:
Put on the dust mask and put 2gms. of each color of dye into separate jars.
Add a few drops of water to make a paste and dissolve the granules of dye.
Remove mask, it's only used when the dye is in powder form.
**(I used 1/4 to 1/2 tea. and no mask. Just don't inhale the dye.)
Some dye colors will take more time to dissolve.
Add 1/2 cup (125ml) of warm water and stir well,
making sure all the dye powder has sompletely dissolved.
Put the lids on the jars and put aside.
Make the padding mixture:
The padding mixture is used to thicken the dye so
that it can be painted onto your yarn without running.
The polycell paste (you can also use cellulose based wallpaper paste)
is used to thicken the dye while the urea is
used to swell the fibre and helps the transfer of the dye.
The methylated spirit assists with mixing everything together.
Place the urea in a jar and pour on 1 cup (250ml)
of boiling water (hold your nose it's not called urea for nothing).
Stir well until the urea has totally dissolved.
Add enough cold water to make a total of 2 cups (500ml),
then add 1 teaspoon (5ml) of methylated spirits and stir.
Sprinkle the polycell paste onto the mixture
while stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.
Finally, stir in 2 drops of dish washing liquid
and 1 tablespoon (15ml) of white vinegar.
Cover and leave for half an hour to thicken and become clear.
Tip: You can store your padding mix for quite a while in the fridge.
If you don't plan on using it straight away don't add
the vinegar until the day you're dyeing your fibre.
Prepare your yarn:
Soak your yarn or fibre in room temperature water
with a few drops of dish washing liquid.
Leave it to soak for about half an hour.
Check your padding mixture.
If it's lumpy you can pour it through a
sieve to remove the lumps.
Add your dye to the padding mix.
Pour about 100ml (less than 1/2 cup) of padding mix
into a container and add 2-4 teaspoons (10-20ml)
of dye solution and stir well.
Use less dye for paler shades of colour.
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Finally the fun part-- Dyeing Your Stuff!
1: Using the towel, blot the excess water out of
your yarn or spin the excess water out using your washing machine.
In order for all the dye to be absorbed, your
yarn should be damp but not dripping wet.
2: Lay out your yarn on some plastic wrap.
Use enough plastic to wrap your skein in when you've finished painting.
If you're painting slivers, spread it out widthways
so that the dye can penetrate to the
other side as much as possible. You may have
to use more dye to get it to the other side.
3: Using your brushes, paint your design or color
choices on the yarn. This is the fun creative part
I like best. You can do anything with the
dye, big color areas,small dots,
stripes zigzag, what every you like.
If you're leaving your yarn to cure for
48 hours your dye will travel slightly while it's
curing so make sure to take this into account
and be careful not to make your yarn soaking wet.
You want to paint on just enough dye to colour it.
If you're going to set the dye immediately in your microwave
the dye won't have a chance to travel so paint it exactly
as you want it to appear after heating.
When you've finished dyeing the top of your
skein, turn it over and paint any spots that the dye hasn't penetrated.
4: Fold the plastic over your skein of yarn
and turn over the ends to exclude as much air as possible.
5: Set your wrapped packet in a sunny place to cure for 24-48 hours.
Some sort of heat is needed to set the dye.
You can place it on a sunny windowsill, put something over
it so the sun doesn't hit the yarn directly, or leave
it in your car on a warm day.
You can microwave your yarn for 2 minutes, then leave for 2 minutes
and repeat two or three times more (leaving it to cool down
completely after the final heating).
Make sure that the plastic wrap you have
used is microwave safe before heating.
This is the method I used.
Check after each time you heat your yarn.
Don't let it dry out and don't use yarn or fabric
with metalics in the microwave. Be careful of steam
escaping when you check it.
You can also:
Use a slit open oven bag instead of plastic wrap
and heat your painted project in your oven for 1/2
an hour at 140 degrees F. or the coolest temp. your oven has.
You don't want to bake your fiber.
My friend used an old turkey roaster to hold her dye project.
5: After your dyed yarn has cooled down, wash in
tepid water with a few drops of dish washing
liquid to remove any padding mix and excess dye.
Rinse in water the same temperature as your wash water,
spin any excess water out and hang in
the shade to dry. It's not a good idea to
dry your dye projects in the sun.
I hope you will try this with some friends.
It is so much more enjoyable and everyone is different
with their colors. You get so much more variety
and the day goes so fast.
I will be updating these pages as I experiment.
Keep in touch.
If you have any questions please email me
I have other pages of interest on my web site
if you would be so kind as to wander through them.
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