Color Catcher

 

I'm having my second day of dyeing to day and I have reached my least favorite stage of the dyeing process, the rising. I did 3 of my 6 batches of dyeing on Saturday until I ran out of washing soda which is used to fix the Procion MX cold water dyes. So I came to a grinding hold and haven't had a chance to continue until today.
I'm so careful not to make any mess during the actual dyeing, but come to the rinsing, it is almost impossible not to "throw the dye around" how ever careful. However I have found one thing that can shorten the rinsing process, making it more enjoyable, as well as saving a bit of water. That is "Colour Catchers". Here in Britain they are sold in the detergent section of the supermarkets. They are smallish white sheets of non woven fabric and they are meant to prevent colour run when doing a load of laundry. When added to all stages of the rinsing process of your dye batch, they will actually absorb the loose dye and you will end up with a batch of beautiful graded colours in the same colour as the main batch as well as shortened the number of rinses. If run through the dryer the surface will crinkle a bit adding a lovely texture. If dried on the line then they will stay smooth.

Dyeing in the kitchen

To day was the day. I spend all day dyeing in the kitchen. No, I haven't had food poisoning and I'm very much alive. I've been dyeing threads, bits of fabric, silk cocoon strippings, wooden coffee stirrers and beads. Luckily I didn't have to cook a meal today as you wouldn't have been able to find the cooker nor the counter tops. At some stage it looked more like a science lab. I decided to space dye in trays, as I wanted soft multicolored thread. I have been doing a lot of hand embroidery lately so I needed to build up my thread stash again, as well I have want to add mixed packs of the dyed embroidery thread to "SewDanish".

I use Procion MX, fiber reactive cold water dye for most of my dyeing. It is easy to use. Except for the dye powder it only needs washing soda ash/crystals to fix the dye and cooking salt to make the dye stock spread easily. You can add urea as well, but I rarely do that. I only got half of my dyeing done, as I ran out of soda, so I'll have to nip over to the supermarket tomorrow. Right now I have drying racks with all these wonderful coloured threads drying all over the kitchen. Cannot wait to see them all dry tomorrow morning. It is always so exciting to see the result. My dyeing is never a particular exact science, so I never know the result until it is all dry.