dyeing yarn

[Jennifer T Wisener]

Re: dyeing yarn

My local "fiber dealer" mentioned them before heading off to the Maryland Sheep and Fiber Festival. Us, "fiber addicts" have to know where to get our "fiber fix".

But, right now, it's muck buckets. Maybe next spring, I reserving a Corriedale and her lamb for next spring.

My local "dealer" is the Tail-Spinner www.tail-spinner.com My mentor with lot's of patience.

The Spainish Moss has been an interesting read. It grows here. Will it be something like spinning flax? Where would be a good scource to read about how it is processed? So far, and a beginner, but silk is the only fiber that is about near cussing, cotton is kind of fun spinning off the seed.

[MrsArmstrong]

Re: dyeing yarn

Jennifer,
I'm off to take a final exam
But I can tell you, you need to remove the green outer layer (the bugs love to eat this stuff) so all you have left is the black (wiry) inner core. You may find information under "black moss" It can be left to rot out in the open, wet it down and let nature do its thing. Time consuming process. If you have cows near by they eat the stuff! That I do know for sure!:cry_smile
It can also be buried in the ground and left to rot off the outer layer. What is left is washed off.
This same black moss was used for bed mattresses. In modern times it was used as the stuffing in furniture and car upholstery. It is also referred to as vegetable horse hair, cause it came from a plant.
There was a reference to it in a diary from Florida, it was reprinted in a book edited by Cantor Brown? I think, it's been awhile. Hope this helps. Someone else may have more information.

Susan..I can't wait for all the exams to be done... on the 14th!

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Spinning the moss is very much like spinning flax--better spun slightly damp. The retting process is similar as well, and can be done in a hot bed, much like making compost.

Thus far, I've only used the hand spindle on it, as I had only a little fiber ready at a time, and did not want to occupy wooden bobbins with damp yarn. I don't have any of the modern bobbins made for such efforts.

Dawn's main problem at this point is adapting available machinery to the task of ginning--it seems that there just aren't any old working moss gins around for sale.

[Jennifer T Wisener]

Re: dyeing yarn

Thanks Susan,
Some information to share with a fellow "swamper" that shares the pocosin.

I have some indigo seedings started and trying to figure where to put some flax seeds and sugar pumpkins seeds that the birds and bunnies will not eat them. The only way to understand what folks had to do during the blockades, I guess, is to experiment.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

I've had some articles in draft form for awhile--this is as good a time as any to throw them out. Elizabeth may choose to gather them up in order and post them elsewhere---or send them back for more work. First draft, and more 'how to' than referenced research. I can't get to pictures of equipment right now, so we'll have to do without that for the time being.

Dyeing Yarn with Natural Dyes
Mrs. Lawson, Weaver, Spinster, Strong Fast Dyes
Copyright T. Hood Lawson 2007
This may be copied freely for personal use as long as it is copied in its entirety, and with full attribution.

A lot of folks have been dyeing stuff for a mighty long time. These ideas and techniques are not new. These techniques are meant for those attempting to demonstrate dye techniques in a historical setting.


1. Choosing your yarn.
Now, you would think this would not be a big issue. Pick out the yarn you want to dye, and let’s go. Nope. First off, you are not going to be mixing fibers here. If you are dyeing wool yarn, you may dye several different sizes of wool yarn in the same pot (if there is room in the pot) but its unlikely that you’ll be dyeing wool, cotton, linen, and hemp all the in the same pot. For one thing, the basic chemistry involved in natural dyes is such that the dye bath that works for one fiber type (protein based, such as wool or silk) may not work for another fiber type (cellulose based such as cotton or hemp).

My own personal bent is towards dyeing wool. This is because I am cheap and practical. A little bit of dye goes a long way with wool. Linen and cotton are piggys when it comes to dye—it takes a lot of preparation to make them take dye, and it takes a lot of dye to get a little bit of color. Silk, like wool, takes dye well. Silk is nice stuff—and it’s for fine ladies---my folks came to this country by someone else paying their passage in return for their work, so fine ladies we have never been.

Notice that I’ve said nothing about any blends or non-natural fibers here. There is a reason for that. A man made fiber will not take a natural dye. Don’t try it---like putting lipstick on a pig, it is not attractive and does not give the desired result. Blends of natural fibers require special handling to accept natural dyes, and are not for beginners—they were also uncommon in period clothing, so for the purposes of this article, we are just not going there.

So, in choosing your yarn, a good quality all wool yarn in its natural color is an excellent choice. While sheep come in many colors, just like human hair, the most common color is a creamy off white. If the yarn you are considering is a bright ‘optic white’, it has been bleached—and this means that the scales of the wool have been partially removed in the process. Wool has little scales on it, just like fish scales, just like your own hair. Those little scales are an integral part of the dye process—its how the dye binds with the wool. If the scales are no longer there, the wool will not accept and hold dye easily.

Next, you’ve got to consider the ply of the yarn—one ply, two ply, or more. If you don’t know what ply is, you need a more basic lesson than I can give here. Head towards a good knitting shop (this means not a chain store and one that has somebody who can knit present during all operating hours) and learn more about yarns. As a beginning dyer, you do not want to deal with a loosely spun yarn, or a ‘singles’ or one-ply yarn—these require special handling to keep from ruining them, and this is not the time to learn that step.

So, natural colored yarn, 2 ply or more, all wool, with a nice spin to it, in a weight you will use, in an amount you will use. Figuring up enough for your project is also beyond the scope of this article—again, the local knitting store, or the local weaving shop, is your friend---learn from them, and pay them for their time. They are sharing knowledge that you need.

Estimate well, and generously. You will always find uses for leftover natural dyed yarns. No piece over 6 inches long goes to waste in my studio. Anything less than 6 inches long goes in the pile for the birds—and they reward me with multicolored nests in the eaves of my house.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

2. Skeining Your Yarn

It would be nice if you could take the yarn in the form you purchased it, dunk it directly in the dyepot, and get great results. You can’t. Such is life. Everything requires a little extra work and improvement to get it just right.

This is especially true if you purchased the yarn in a skein---a manufacturer’s skein is often tied too tightly to dye properly, and must be rewound and retied.

Enter your first piece of equipment: A niddy-noddy. Look it up. You wind a skein on it. You’ll want one that makes a skein about 2 yards around. They make them smaller than that, but not much bigger. You’ll want to count the yardage in your skeins, so even increments are important. You really don’t want to mess with one that makes, say, a 42 inch skein.

A number of wooden models are available—or you can have one made from the picture. Don’t get happy with the glue bottle here—in order to work properly, the 3 pieces must come apart. You can use that last little bit of period buttermilk paint on it though---many original examples are painted.

You can also wind a skein on a clock skeiner, sometimes called a ‘weasel’. It does the same thing, but it does it faster. It also takes up more room in your transport vehicle—and this is already a ‘gear heavy’ impression. You are unlikely to find one in true working order, with the counter intact, and the weasel popping—and if you do, you will have to guard it constantly from prying fingers and rough handling. Better a $25 niddy noddy than a $400 clock skeiner, in all but the most sheltered settings.

For your first efforts, wind no more than a ½ pound of yarn in each skein, winding evenly on the arms of the niddly-noddy or clock skeiner. When you start the yarn, make a loop with slip knot over one arm of the tool----when you end the yarn, again, make a loop with a slip knot over the nearest arm of the tool.

Did you remember to keep count of your yardage in that skein? You are going to wish you did. If you did this step in a historical setting, you probably lost count after the first five yards. If you were smart, you figured out how many of your commercial yarn packages should go in each skein, and just counted your labels. Unless the wind blew them away.

Your whole project does not have to be in one skein—you can, and should divide it up. Your whole project of one particular color does have to fit in one dyepot---and that will become important as your skill increases. The size of your dyepot will determine the composition of your finished projects.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

3. Tying the Skein

Okay, everybody knows how to tie a knot in string. But that is really what you are trying to avoid here—having this whole skein of yarn become one big knot. And in order to do that, you are going to tie some very carefully planned knots. First, go find something else besides the wool yarn you are dyeing----I prefer a strong undyed cotton cord, tightly twisted, about the size of a sport weight yarn. A good strong hemp cord will do nicely too---again, undyed.

If you tie this cord around your skein too tightly, your yarn will be striped. This is not always a bad thing, and there are times when you will want a variegated yarn. (See Mothers Of Invention) But most of the time, you will want a fairly consistent color throughout your yarn, so you don’t want your tie cords to put a choke hold on the yarn. Wool yarn swells when it is wet, so what looks loose enough may not be.

So, here’s my best guess. Your mileage may vary. I skein a half pound of yarn using a niddy-noddy that makes a 2 yard skein. This particular yarn has about 1200 yards per pound, so I’ve got 600 yards in this skein. I cut 4 cords, each 15 inches long. Take each cord and wrap a figure 8 around one section of the skeined yarn, around the outside, crossing threads about the middle of the section, then wrapping the other side and tying. Do this with the other cords, equidistant around the skein. Remember those little loops you made in the ends of the yarn? Make sure one of the cords passes through each of the loops.

Now you have a big skein of yarn, loosely tied with four cords, and the loose ends of the yarn are also secured so they can’t get away and get tangled.

Take it off the niddy-noddy. Just pop it off one side of one arm, all the rest will follow. Now, hold this thing up. Put your arms inside the skein. Give it a snap, pulling both your arms apart, and watch all the threads pop into place. Look at how the figure 8 cords appear. No threads are laying over them---they are securing all the threads in the skein. Remember this place---you will want to find it again.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

4. Scouring the Skein

All yarn, whether hand spun or commercially produced, contains a certain amount of spinning oil. I don’t care how lovely and white the yarn looks to you, the oil is in there. In order for dye to bind properly with the wool, that oil has to be removed.

Now, you can’t just toss this stuff into the washer, hit the perma-press cycle and leave. If wool is subjected to great temperature changes, agitation, and soap, it is going to ‘felt’. This means it will shrink and draw up into a mess—and one that cannot be repaired. As we said earlier, wool has scales. Warm water makes those scales open up (and release all that spinning oil) but if you then shake the wool around, and change the temperature of the water, the wool scales will close in a disorderly fashion, matting and drawing up.

You can’t run water directly on the wool, and you can’t subject it to abrupt temperature changes.

Run the sink full of the hottest water you can. At my house, that’s 160 degrees. Put about ¼ capful of Dawn detergent into the water, and swish it in. Lay the skein on top of the water and let it sink slowly. Go away. Come back when the water is much cooler. Lift the skein out of the water without wringing, twisting, pressing, or doing anything else but letting it hang until the water runs out. Drop it into a clean bucket. (You can’t have too many buckets). Now, do it again, this time without the Dawn.

If you have a number of skeins to scour, you can do it in the machine, but you must pay attention to the process. This must be a top-loading machine with a cycle that can be interrupted at any point. Fill the machine with hot water. Stop the cycle. Lay your skeins on top of the water and let them absorb water and sink into the tub. Or, put on some Bluette gloves and sink them slowly and carefully so you don’t shock the wool. Add Synthorpol per bottle instructions, or about a capful of Dawn and mix well before sinking the yarn. Close the lid. Wrap the machine in yellow crime scene tape so no one will come along and start it up in order to ‘help you’. Go away.

After the water is cool, turn the machine dial to the spin cycle. Turn off the water coming into the machine. You do not want cold water spraying on the warm yarn—this will cause it to felt. Spin the water out of the wool and remove it from the machine and drop it into a clean bucket. Now, refill the machine and do it again, this time without the Dawn.

You can do this step in a historical setting. I do not recommend it. Folks will think you are cooking spaghetti. They will want to know what time supper is, and can they come. At least they are not asking if you are hot in that dress.

If you insist, get a large iron washpot, fill it ¾ full of water and shave a piece of good lye soap about 1 ½ inches square into the pot. If you can get good soft soap, so much the better, and mix it well into the water. Place yarn into the water, cover pot, build fire, and bring to just below boiling. Hold for 1 hour, remove yarn, and use soapy water for other washing. Allow yarn to drain, but not dry, and place in a second of clean fresh water, again bringing it to just below boiling and holding for 1 hour. Remove yarn. If this water has little or no soap residue, you may also use this as a mordant pot to save hauling water and save fire wood. If it is soapy, you will have to start over.

After your yarn has been scoured and rinsed, you have a couple of choices. You can hang it up and let it dry or keep it wet in a bucket, ready for the next step of pre-mordanting the yarn.

No matter your choice, this is a good time to put the skein back in order. Find those 4 figure eight cords, make sure the threads are laying in an orderly fashion under them, or rearrange them until they are. Place your hands inside the skein and snap them out until all the threads fall into place, and hang the skein to drain.

All the work to this point is pretty boring. It does not lend itself to public interpretation. If you are preparing several pounds here ( I normally do from 20 to 50 pounds in a dye run), days of work are involved, and it still looks like spaghetti to the average tourist, even an interested one.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Now, some of these steps may be as clear as mud. This is a good point to stop for questions and clarifications, as well as additional suggestions from others with experience in the matter.

It may take me a day or so to come back to it, as I have to get Mama clean, comfortable, fed, and asleep before driving into town to a lovely old schoolhouse with strong coffee and a wireless connection.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: dyeing yarn

Terre, it's looking good to me (and I don't mess with yarn much.) I'll start pulling the bits and pieces down into my "Terre Transcribed" file, and as you have pics and all, I'd be glad to help with the mechanics of turning the whole thing into a great addition to the Research section!

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Wonderful---I'm going to have to break down and get one of those digital cameras so I can photograph the plunder around my house.

Part of what I want to happen here is for folks to raise questions about the directions when they are not clear. Picture is worth a 1000 words, and all that, but a lot of this 'production yarn work' education cost me several thousand in tuition over the years----then the additional work to pull the modern training back to historical interpretation.

Folks might as well benefit from all that sweat.

[Angel of Mercy]

Re: dyeing yarn

Mrs. Lawson,
You're information and step-by-step is wonderful! I may be contacting you in the future.

Thank you so much for sharing!

[Jennifer T Wisener]

Re: dyeing yarn

Mrs. Lawson,
I will print and do more reading, one step already I see I miss is cleaning a skien before dyeing.

I do more dyeing the cleaned fleece and then spinning, then dyeing skiens.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Dyeing the cleaned fleece, or 'dyeing in the wool' is a different process, with different handling steps.

I'll put that in notes to address.

[Tree Rat]

Re: dyeing yarn

How to Dye Different Colors

What is used for brightening and making the colors
durable are called mordants. The mordants used here
are copperas, (sulphate of iron), blue vitrol,
(sulphate of copper), alum, wheat bran, lye and lime
water. Those who cannot obtain copperas (now a scarce
article) use the water from o-ne of the mineral
springs, which is strongly impregnated with iron. . .

Sassafras bark and roots are used for dying worsted a
permanent and beautiful yellow and orange color. Use
a copper boiler, and five ounces of alum to o-ne pound
of wool or worsted yarns.

Kalmia, or dwarf laurel, dyes cotton a fine drab
color. Use a copper boiler. The leaves and twigs of
the kalmia and about one tablespoonful of copperas to
three gallons of dye. Scald the cotton material in
the dye for twenty minutes, then rinse in cold water,
and hang to dry in the air.

Willow.--The bark dyes wool and linen a deep blue
black, and dyes cotton a dark slate color. Use an
iron boiler. For black, three ounces of copperas to
four gallons of dye; for slate color, o-ne ounce of
copperas is sufficient. Boil in the dye for twenty
minutes, rinse in cold water and hang to dry. The dye
may be deepened by a repetition of the same process in
fresh dye.

Red Oak.--The bark and roots dye a fine shade of
chocolate brown. Use an iron boiler, two ounces of
copperas to four gallons of dye. Boil twenty minutes
in the dye and rinse in cold water. This dyes cotton.
The Spanish oak dyes another shade of brown.

White Oak.--The bark dyes cotton lead color. Use an
iron boiler; two ounces of copperas to four gallons of
dye; scald in the dye twenty minutes, and rinse with
cold water. Oak bark will not dye wool.

Pine bark--all the varieties found in our woods--dyes
cotton slate color, combined with the Kalmia it dyes
dove color. For each color put o-ne ounce of copperas
to four gallons of dye, and boil in it for twenty
minutes. Rinse the slate color in cold water and the
dove color in cold lye.

Sweet gum bark dyes cotton dove color. Use a copper
boiler; a spoonful of copperas to three gallons of
lye, and scald in the dye for twenty minute; rinse in
cold lye water , and hang to dry in the air.

Guinea Corn.--The seed dyes wool lead color, and will
not dye cotton. Use an iron boiler, a little
copperas, and rinse in lye.

Maple--The bark dyes both wool and cotton a fine dark
shade of purple. Use an iron boiler and two ounces of
copperas to four gallons of dye; scald in hot dye for
twenty minutes and rinse in cold water.

Beech.--The bark dyes dove color. Use an iron boiler
and o-ne ounce of copperas to four gallons of dye;
rinse in cold water, or in lye for another shade.

Sumach--The leaves and berries dye black. Use an iron
boiler, and four ounces of copperas to four gallons of
dye. Boil the cotton yarn or cloth in the dye for an
hour, and rinse in cold water.

Walnut.--The bark and roots dye cotton fawn-brown and
root-color, according to the portion of bark or of
roots and copperas used. The leaves boiled in dye
color cotton purple and wool black; when used without
boiling the leaves dye wool fawn-color. The green
shells of the full grown nuts dye black with copperas.
What is dyed black must be rinsed in cold water; the
cotton to be dyed purple must be rinsed in lye. The
fawn, brown and root color must be rinsed in cold
water. The proportion of copperas used for black is
two ounces to four gallons of dye; for the other
shades use much less copperas. . . .
--Charleston Courier.

MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL [JACKSON, MS], February 18, 1863

http://southernhistory.net

***********************
1st post here & new to the list.
Thought this info might be interesting to some concerning dyeing techniques from back in the day. I'm no expert on the subject & just ran across the info I'm sharing with the list. Spinster seems to have a PhD in this field & her knowledge is much appreciated since my wife is just starting out in the yarn field as well. Thanks for everyone's insight & all the great info!

B. Sharp aka Tree Rat
Old Spencer Mill, Tenn.