What's Cooking?

The other day, I decided to get some dye'ing done on the stove top. I had two things that I wanted to dye -- my Hemlock Blanket (which is an oatmeal color) and a lovely white silk velvet scarf that I picked up from Dharma Trading Company,

So, I grabbed my dye'ing pots and my Jacquard acid dyes, and started dye'ing! For the hemlock blanket, I used a combination of green, black, and blue to give me a darker green.

For the silk scarf, I used a combination of red & black to give me a (hopefully) dark blood red color.

When you dye fabric, it usually seem pretty dark while in the dye pot, but will dry a lighter color than what is seen in the pot. So, sometimes, it might take a few dye'ing sessions to get the color you want, or you have to go "darker" in the dye pot in order to get the shade you truly want. If you have extra of a given fabric, you can do a  "dye swatch" some of the fabric and try out different measurements of dye. I've done this with silk ribbon that I've wanted to match specific outfits. It takes a bit of time, but really worth it, if you need to match color.

This time, however, I winged it, because I didn't care about the color matching and only wanted an approximate color. (Plus, if I didn't like the color, I could always overdye it darker).

The one thing about dye'ing that I like is that it is "fairly" maintenance free one you have everything set up. I mixed the dyes in the pot, added the fabric, and let it 'simmer' for a while; checking on it occassionally while I got other housework done.

I took some photos of the in-progress dye'ing projects. I love how these cam out.

Here's the hemlock blanket on my blocking boards, before pinning. I'm really liking the color, which looks somewhat "teal" in the dyebath, but is a lovely green. I forgot to take a photo of the scarf, which I'll post about later.