As I’ve been a little disappointed with the results of my recent dyeing sessions, I decided to do a controlled test so that I can see what’s going on.
- red, yellow and turquoise diluted at the rate of 1 level teaspoon of dye powder to a pint of water
- two secondaries per primary mixed 3 tablepoons to 1 tablespoon – making 4 tablespoons or 12 teaspoons of each
- each secondary split into three pots containing 2 teaspoons, 4 teaspoons and 6 teaspoons of dye with a cup or so of water
- a 4g (18 wraps) twisted skein of 3ply in each pot
- nuked for 4 minutes / rest / 4 minutes in groups of 6 pots
Results
red/yellow – almost all dye absorbed, but not always to the centre of the skien – particularly in the lighter tints
yellow/red – almost all dye absorbed – not to centre of skein
yellow/blue – some dye remained in solution – had to rinse skeins – turquoise penetrated skeins better than yellow on darker tint, no white remaining
blue/yellow – quite a lot of dye remained – had to rinse skeins – turquoise penetrated skeins better than yellow on all skeins
blue/red – a lot of dye remained – had to rinse skeins – turquoise penetrated much better than red which was left on the edges of the skeins
red/blue – a lot of dye remained – had to rinse skeins – turquoise penetrated much better than red which was left on the edges of the skeins – a little white remaining
Mmm, there are two lessons here, I think:
- don’t twist the skeins so tightly
- try dyeing the colours sequentially, red first, followed by blue then yellow – this will be the next test