Goofing off with Acid (dye)

or Hand Painting Your Own Yarn

STUFF YOU WILL NEED: jacquard acid dyes, white vinegar, glass jars and measuring cups, measuring spoons, plastic squeeze bottles, rubber gloves, plasic wrap, a pot with a steaming rack or microwaveable glass casserole, coffee filters to test colors.

FIBER PREPARATION - Pre-wetting

Soak wool fiber in a bucket of hot water, 1 cup vinegar and ½ tsp synthrapol or mild liquid soap for at least 1 hour. This improves dye distribution.

GENERAL DYE STOCK PREPARATION

This is a base solution which you can mix various shades of one color

1 teaspoon dry dye powder to 1 cup water, store in glass jar (canning jars work well). Start with hot water, it dissolves the powder better.

From this dye stock you can make different depths of shade (DOS) without a scale. Even though the dye stock is not a technically exact 1% solution, if you use it consistently, you will have similar results each time and avoided a great deal of math and measuring.

Simple Depth of Shade (DOS) mix ratios:

• Deep 2 parts dye stock to 1 part water
• Dark 1 part dye stock to 1 part water
• Medium 1 part dye stock to 2 parts water
• Light 1 part dye stock to 4 parts water
• Pale 1 part dye stock to 8 parts water
• Very Pale 1 part dye stock to 16 parts water

All things are relative so if you are making a Deep DOS you would start with 1 cup of dye stock and add ½ cup water to make a 2:1 ratio. For Very Pale DOS which is a 1:16 ratio you would use 1 tablespoon dye stock per 1 cup water (there are 16 tbs in 1 cup water). You can test your DOS mixes by putting a few drops on a coffee filter.

Keep a notebook of your projects. I mean it, you will be grateful later if you take the time now to write down what you did.

Put your DOS mixes into squeeze bottles, lay your yarn hank out on plastic wrap and paint it.

Don't flood it on, you can always add more but you can't suck it back out.

Press, pat or squish to distribute, making sure you get the dye to the underside.

When the yarn is permeated, fold the plastic wrap over it and fold it into a packet.

Steam the packet(s) for 20 minutes or place them in a glass casserole and microwave them for 5-8 minutes. Let them set and cool thoroughly and by this I mean for hours or overnight or you will burn yourself. Good quality rubber gloves not only keep your hands clean, they help protect you from burns.

Rinse in cool water, squeeze out excess water, hang to dry.