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Black is black is black?
Sep. 24th, 2008 07:27 amIt was a wonderful idea--use scrap yarn of the same weight to create something more sophisticated than a potholder or wildly colorful scarf. A dip in a black dye bath would then render everything equal and I would have a black blazer.
Today, I weighed the crocheted pieces (front/back and two sleeves) and found they totaled 17.4 ounces dry. The directions on the bottle of Rit dye said to use 3 gallons of water for every pound of fabric. Well, only about two and half gallons of water fit in the pot if one left headroom for the project. But--close enough. The pieces went in and were immediately a lovely black color except for one pink/white ombre in which the pink turned a pretty purple. Ooooh, ah. However, in our experiments with using beet juice as a colorant, it had also dyed a lovely color that promptly washed out. Half an hour of standing over the hot stove later, my sister and I took the pot out to rise the blazer pieces. All the dye ran off the first piece, and we discovered I had forgotten to add salt.
A cup of salt and another half hour later, it still didn't keep the lovely black color. The dye did stain my hands when I wrung the sleeve to get excess water out--and left finger shaped marks that would probably disappear when the rest of the dye went in cold water.
Well, Rit did warn us. "Not recommended to dye acrylics." Of course, when one has inherited several stashes of yarn, what else would one expect the scraps to be? And all the 'nice' colors have been used in other scrap projects. *grumble*
I've left it in the pot--perhaps, if it soaks overnight...
But I'll be thinking of other options to make the blazer look better. Just in case the pessimist is right and it doesn't help.
Today, I weighed the crocheted pieces (front/back and two sleeves) and found they totaled 17.4 ounces dry. The directions on the bottle of Rit dye said to use 3 gallons of water for every pound of fabric. Well, only about two and half gallons of water fit in the pot if one left headroom for the project. But--close enough. The pieces went in and were immediately a lovely black color except for one pink/white ombre in which the pink turned a pretty purple. Ooooh, ah. However, in our experiments with using beet juice as a colorant, it had also dyed a lovely color that promptly washed out. Half an hour of standing over the hot stove later, my sister and I took the pot out to rise the blazer pieces. All the dye ran off the first piece, and we discovered I had forgotten to add salt.
A cup of salt and another half hour later, it still didn't keep the lovely black color. The dye did stain my hands when I wrung the sleeve to get excess water out--and left finger shaped marks that would probably disappear when the rest of the dye went in cold water.
Well, Rit did warn us. "Not recommended to dye acrylics." Of course, when one has inherited several stashes of yarn, what else would one expect the scraps to be? And all the 'nice' colors have been used in other scrap projects. *grumble*
I've left it in the pot--perhaps, if it soaks overnight...
But I'll be thinking of other options to make the blazer look better. Just in case the pessimist is right and it doesn't help.
