Dyeing wool

[clothmama]

I'm glad I found this thread! I dyed some yarn a few months ago and it was lovely and bright when I was drying it afterwards, but after it's first wash and lanoloise it had faded a lot. Is this because I didn't put enough vinegar in originally? Trying to think of what I did wrong as I yearn for bright colours!

I'm not sure @babyroo will have more ideas I'm sure!

I am no expert but it does sound like some of the dye has washed out. what type of wool was it and what dying method did you use?

WSS how did you dye it? When you rinsed after dyeing was there still dye coming out?

It does sound like something went wrong in the dyeing process as it would be unusual for that much colour to fade after one wash/lanolising.

I wouldn't be able to say as i don't use vinegar do you need to use heat with vinegar? From my experience using acid dyes the dye doesnt fix if you haven't "cooked" it long enough x

I used food colouring and I soaked the wool in a vinegar solution before I dyed it. I then painted it with food colouring and then used the microwave to heat the dye. I bought some undyed hanks of pure wool from the West Yorkshire Spinners to try it out on, DK weight. Actually, I blogged about it when I dyed it.... will find link....: http://sasumog.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/my-first-attempt-at-dyeing-yarn/ so that's how I did it and what it looked like. It has seriously faded to looking like desert camouflage though according to DH (he quite likes it but I prefer BRIGHT colours)!

aah the food colouring is probably the problem then. A lot of them now use natural colours which won't work as dyes in the same way. I've seen a list of which will/won't work somewhere, I'll try to find it.

Oh thank you, that is exactly why - I used Asda ones which are apparently useless!!! Will try again now with more suitable dyes

Try food colour gels

I have just had my first go at dyeing wool today with kool aid.


Decided to go for a mottled mix of one colour for a first effort instead of possibly making a brown mess of lots of colours lol!

Im pretty pleased, might get to start crocheting it up tonight. I have learnt a few things I will do differently next time.