I’ve been dyeing up a storm of fiber for the past several months for all the various baby projects I’ve been knitting. This has set me thinking about a number of issues related to dyeing, including depth of shade (DOS) and the best way to rinse fiber after dyeing so that it does not bleed color (like my recent experience with the red Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece yarn that stained a white sweater I knit for my little cousin). Since I’ve been pondering the issue, I thought I’d share some thoughts on the matter. I also invite you, dear readers, to give your input if you have additional ideas.
To give a little background, I use acid dyes to dye animal fibers including wool, alpaca, llama and mohair. The particular brand I use is called Mother MacKenzie’s Miracle Dyes, developed by Judith MacKenzie who is an amazing spinning teacher and source of information pertaining to everything yarn-related. These are non-toxic dyes that require a small amount of weak acid (such as vinegar) to bind with the fiber. They are fairly easy to obtain. However, the reasons I chose to go with these dyes as opposed to a different brand (like Jacquard) are two fold:
a) There are only nine colors of dye available, which is nice because I don’t have space for 30 different jars of dye. Since I dye small amounts of fiber at a time, it is not practical for me to measure out tiny amounts of powder each time I want to dye something, and therefore I prefer to have a standard 1% jar of dissolved dye available for use for each color.
b) These dyes have a wonderful color map, which is a book of dyed samples of every permutation of available colors at a 2% depth of shade. This allows me to reference existing formulas instead of creating my own reference book from scratch. I like to keep notes and swatches of all my color samples, and I always write down the formula for all my trials so I can replicate the color in the future and add them to the book.
So, with all that, I would like to share a few observations that I’ve made over the past several years through trial and error.
1) Vinegar stinks. The majority of the acid dyes on the market call for vinegar as the acid to bind the color to the fiber. After using this method for a few months, I decided I do not like the way vinegar makes the fiber and yarn smell. After consulting friends and other resources, I settled on citric acid. This is a food additive that is easy to find, affordable and does not smell. It comes in powdered form. To use citric acid instead of vinegar, you can add 3% of the weight of the fiber you are dyeing. However, if you are dyeing a very small amount of fiber, you will need a tiny amount of citric acid, which can be difficult to measure out exactly. To solve this problem, I create a 10% solution (i.e. 10 grams of citric acid to 100 mL of water). This is a shelf stable solution that will last for quite a while. You can then calculate 3% of the fiber weight and multiply by 10 to get necessary mL. For example, let’s say you are dyeing 50 grams of wool. You would need 1.5 g of citric acid. If you have a 10% solution, you can add 15 mL, which is easier to measure out.
2) DOS is not always what it seems. Depth of shade refers to how dark a color is when it is dyed. Usually, DOS ranges from 3% (of fiber weight) to less than .5%. A good, bright color is usually around the 2% range. Pastels are 0.5% or lower. Very light colors can be dyed in the range of 0.2%. When I first got my dyes and book, I dyed everything at 2%, because that is what the samples in the book showed and I wanted to make sure I was getting the same colors. Then I began to notice that some colors like yellow and magenta were never fully absorbed by the fiber at 2%. I would get a pot full of yellow water, no matter what I did. Since I do not like to waste dye, I realized that the fiber was not absorbing all of the color and therefore I did not need as much. I tried dyeing fiber at 1% and realized that the colors are just as bright most of the time, and I’m wasting less dye because more of it is getting absorbed. Now I’m trying some at .5% and still finding that the colors are quite bright, much brighter than pastels.
3) Rinsing dyed fiber can be a pain. Once you’ve dyed your fiber and have your wonderful colors and your dyebath has cooled, you need to take out the fiber and rinse it – again and again and again. I find that colors that do not get fully absorbed like yellow and magenta have a tendency to run. I rinse my fiber in a small plastic tub that I put in my bathtub. For a while, I found the rinsing process to be very time consuming and water consuming and not always effective. I tried rinsing multiple times and adding citric acid to the water to stabilize the dye but often my rinse water was still yellow. So one day I was at my local yarn store, and saw a bottle of Synthrapol. The label reads: “Synthrapol is an industrial strength, neutral liquid detergent, used as a prewash, afterwash or wetting agent for paint and dye. Synthrapol has a unique characteristic of keeping loose dye particles in suspension, thus preventing backstaining.” I thought to myself – Eureka. This must be the solution to my problem. If this stuff can keep particles in suspension, then it should be able to extract extra dye from my fiber. The next time I did a dyepot, I rinsed the fiber in cold water as per directions and then filled my tub with hot water and put a drop of Synthrapol in with my fiber (it’s super concentrated so you only need a tiny amount). Then, as often happens, I ran out of time so I left the fiber overnight to soak. The next morning the tub was full of dark yellow water. It looked like most of the extra dye had come out. So I poured in clean hot water and added the fiber with some citric acid and the water looked almost clear. Now I always rinse first with Synthrapol and leave my fiber in there during the day or overnight and then follow with two or three quick rinses with hot water and citric acid. This has cut down my rinsing time and water considerably.
I am always looking for better ways of rinsing fiber, so if you have other suggestions, I would love to hear them. I hope some of this information is useful and happy dyeing!
