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Snow Dyeing Wool with Acid Dyes
Thanks, Kathy, for posting your snow dyeing project. It got me motivated to try it. So it was “carpe diem” since rain was predicted and sure enough two days later the snow was gone. Since I don’t have any fiber reactive dyes yet but do have acid dyes, I decided to use them with my mohair and and Finn sheep fleeces. I much prefer spinning colored fiber. The Finn fleece had quite a bit of gray in it which I thought might be interesting.
Process: soaked the fiber in water with a glug vinegar; placed wet but not dripping fiber in 3 dishpans (both types in each); added lots of snow; sprinkled Dharma acid dyes randomly on the snow: brilliant yellow, deep magenta, caribbean, blue. I was a bit liberal with my sprinkling. Acid dyes require heat to set the dye so after the snow had melted (24 hours), I carefully lifted the fiber 1 batch at a time and put it into my dye pot with some cold water, heated it up to 180 degree F. for about 45 minutes, let it cool completely and then rinsed it and let it dry. Caveat: I sprinkled a bit of fire engine red and sapphire blue dye powder on the fiber in the lower left and upper right hand corners during the heating process (see photo). This was a lot of fun just waiting to be surprised by the outcome.
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17 Replies
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That is fabulous! I hadn’t even thought about snow dyeing with acid dyes because of the need for heat. I may have to try this the next time I’m dyeing wool!
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Thanks, Tien. I plan to spin the colors up into a variegated yarn either by blending and or adding one color and then a next (simulating a painted yarn?). I will also core spin using a commercial mohair yarn to make a yarn more suitable as a warp. I have more of the dyed fiber than is shown in the box but probably only enough for a warp for a small sample project, using what I learn from your Designing With Painted Warps class. This is definitely a “we’ll see” kind of project.
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That sounds so interesting! Please keep us posted on the project. I’m fascinated.
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Thanks, Tien. It seems like I’m opting for slow going projects of late so it may be awhile.
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I am chuckling about Tien snow dyeing in southern CA :). Maybe a trip up into the mountains – don’t forget to take a cooler!
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Hey! I’m in Northern California! It’s at least TWO degrees cooler in the winter here. LOL
And I don’t need to go anywhere. I just need to buy a Snow-Cone machine! Or else 100 Sno-Cones. Maybe the latter, if only to see the look on the vendor’s face!
(I usually use ice…but it’s not the same. :-) )
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Hoping to not make Tien jealous, but….woke up to this scene and thought “an icy blue wintry shawl with black branches running through it? Or a wintry wool jacket?”. Then I remembered Charlene’s post and an ice-dyed warp I had done but didn’t like …so I practically ran downstairs to grab that warp, soak in soda ash, put in a tub, then go play in the snow! So, now the suspense until tomorrow to see how it turns out :).
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Good for you, Joy. I hope you like how it turns out. Looking forward to seeing how the colors played.
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Oh fine, keep us in suspense! LOL
I love your snowy photos but I think I’ll stay where it’s nice and warm – it’s 60 degrees out right now, the birds are singing, and I see some trees budding out so our (cough) long, cold, hard California winter is almost over. After 36 years here I think I’ve developed an allergy to snow!
It’s also tomato starting time. This year I’m being verrrrrry restrained and only growing 8 or so tomato plants, because I’m letting one plot lie fallow (of tomatoes) for a year in hopes of conquering disease problems. I’m growing four varieties of garlic instead.
Next year I’ll be growing out the results of my breeding attempts…THAT will be interesting!
Anyway. Enjoy your snow (it is so pretty) and I can’t wait to see the results of your snow dyeing!
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Garlic is a great choice in my opinion: easy to plant, quite forgiving. not disease prone. Think of the garlic braids. You could weave an open basket to hold all your harvested garlic. Who knows, you might even be able to compete with Gilroy. LOL
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Here is the update on the snow overdye experiment. When it first came out, the entire thing was dark, dark blue, almost black. I rinsed and soaked and rinsed for almost 2 weeks! and then simmered, until I could see some oranges and purple spots. Now working on what weft colors to use and draft selection.
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I was wondering what happened with your snow overdyed warp. Your patience certainly paid off. These colors are beautiful.
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oh wow, that is such an exciting warp!
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awesome colors. I love kettle dying, I just drop in my wool, a dash of this color, to the right, a dash of another in the center, and maybe a little here a little there. Sit back watch it cook and see what you get. As a rule I never dye enough of the ones that come out awesome.
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Thanks, Sandra
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I thought I had responded to this already! Great Job Charlene, this is so interesting to see, and to compare with your more recent experiments.
I really love how you are “thinking outside the box” and letting the experiments be experimental. Great job!
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Thanks Kathy. You did respond, but that was to the frst experiment. This was the second one where the snow was too dry so I ended up having to improvise which entailed going beyond snow!
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