dyeing yarn

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Hidy Brer Squirrel---and welcome.

While I'm real fond of you and your kin, one of the things you'll note as you look more around the site is that all folks sign their real names---that being because it is required.

Bundle your wife on up to Perryville on the Farm early next month and we'll talk dyepots some over the quilt frame. You can come too, there is a corn crib to be built.

And see if the local high school chemistry teacher can order you some sulphate of iron---that's where I got my last stash, and it does make a dandy show when its added to the pot.

[Tree Rat]

Re: dyeing yarn

Mrs. Lawson,
I do thank you m'am for the fine invite & would appreciate the opportunity to get schooled by a master in the field, however, I am already committed that Saturday & Sunday for two different Confederate Memorial Day observences in my neck of the woods of Dickson Co. Tenn.

I am the commander of the local SCV Camp 260 & am helping our local OCR & UDC gals out with some memorial graveside services & another historical marker placement in Fairview, Williamson Co. TN to Baxter's Battery & Marion Rifles the next day. http://baxtersbattery.5u.com
I do hope to get the chance to meet you one day & am thankful that we are able to learn from your experience on this list.

My wife Penny & I are very impressed with your knowledge of the craft & you have an open invitation to cross the Tennessee River to come pay us a visit anytime here at Old Spencer Mill. We are contemplating opening a small yarn shop locally & your info has been very helpful in our research.
My 3rd Great Grandpa was a 1st Lt. in Co. E, 27th Alabama out of Lauderdale Co. / William Washington Pettus. I was just in B'ham a little over a month ago for a SCV/AOT meeting & have close kin living in Jackson now. I spent some good times in your state growing up with trips to Albertville & Georgiana to visit kinfolk as a child. Good to see a Southern Bama gal who knows her stuff present on this list & gave me the push to finally join instead of just lurk.

As a newbie here, I won't be a big poster to the list but will pass on anything that I think might help others once in a blue moon. I would appreciate being able to shoot you a question every now & then but will promise not to wear you out. Thanks for helping a greenhorn to the list out with your offer of help & God bless. Thank ya kindly for the tips & enjoy your trip to Perryville.

Bryan Sharp aka Tree Rat
Old Spencer Mill

http://oldspencermill.com

Capt. W. H. McCauley SCV Camp 260

http://scvcamp260.org

Historic Elm Springs

http://elmspringscsa.com

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

5. Pre-mordant the Yarn

So, what’s a mordant, and why do you need one? A mordant is a chemical, normally a metal salt that aids the dye in binding to the yarn. Without a mordant, the dye will wash out quickly.

Mordants also affect color---if you pre-mordant skeins of yarn in different mordants, rinse them well, and then place them all in the same dye bath at the same time for the same length of time, you’ll get different colors.

Common mordants include alum, copperas, stannous chloride, blue vitrol, or iron. Other chemicals can also be used to affect color, such as lye or vinegar, but are not considered to be a mordant.

Many mordants are toxic and should be handled carefully, with gloves and masks, and kept out of reach of children. Containers used to measure mordants should be clearly marked and not utilized in food preparation.

Whether you are working with period receipts or modern natural dye recipes, mordants should be measured carefully---more is NOT better. Excess mordant can make yarn sticky, and may damage the fiber. If the yarn does not take up all the mordant, you also have the problem of disposing of a liquid that must be handled in an environmentally responsible manner.

Mordants affect color—Alum produces a clear true color, Iron saddens or darkens, Tin brightens, Copper gives a greenish cast. Proportions and combinations of mordant vary with the fiber being dyed and the dyestuff used. No attempt will be made to address specific formulas in this article, as there are a multitude of fine books on the subject.

In most cases, the mordant is mixed with a small amount of hot water until thoroughly dissolved, then added to the larger pot and mixed. The skeined yarn (which has been soaked in room temperature water for 24 hours prior) is added to the pot, and the temperature slowly brought to a simmer and held there for a couple of hours. Heat is removed, and the pot allowed cooling before removing yarn. The yarn is rinsed and either placed in the dye bath or dried in a dark well ventilated place and stored until ready to dye.

Again, this is another part of the process that is pretty boring to the outside observer. If I’ve messed around and not prepared for a historic presentation, and must mordant on site, I normally run an indigo pot (a very showy process) in addition, just so we’ll have something to talk about besides the fact that we are Not Cooking Supper Here.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

6. What Kind of Pot Are You Going to Use?

Every modern book on natural dyes will tell you to obtain a ‘non-reactive’ container. What they really want you to have is a stainless steel pot, and a mighty big and expensive one to boot. They will then tell you that you can get by with a big speckled enamel water bath canner, at least until you get a ding in the enamel and it starts to rust.

Neither of these really does you any good when demonstrating in a historical setting. Neither one is correct.

You’ve also got a capacity consideration---your pot size affects the size of matched dye lot you can do. Your skeined yarn must float freely in the pot in order to dye evenly—you can’t just jam it in there.

Your pot choice also affects your dye color. You’ll have a number of options to weigh in this choice in coming up with the best available solution for your presentation.

You can obtain an iron pot with proper period lines (just because it’s an iron pot doesn’t make it the right iron pot), but it will also make your yarns darker—and you just may want bright clear colors.

You can scrape up the money to purchase a large period correct tin pot, and it will give you a good bright clear color, using alum and tin mordant, until the day comes that you get a ding in the finish and the underlying sheet iron begins to spot the yarn. For me, this happens in less than a year, for a $100 pot than cannot subsequently be used for food preparation.

You can look in the same $100-200 price range for a copper pot with a reasonable period look. Some are coming out of the Middle East now as decorator items that aren’t bad. These tend to ‘green’ the yellow dyes a bit too much for my taste, but otherwise give an excellent presentation appearance.

During the period, dye processes were often done in very large vats, with large quantities of dyestuffs. In working in historical settings today, we rarely have the opportunity to set up these large permanent vats, but we often do need to dye in for larger projects. If your dyepot will only hold a pound of yarn, then you cannot match a two pound dyelot for a particular project. Thus, you may find that a compromise is in order in choosing your dyepots.

Several years ago, I purchased two heavy duty aluminum pots from a restaurant supply house. They are about 3 feet tall and 24 inches across, with straight sides and a slightly rough exterior. Their size enabled us to start producing 2 to 3 pound dyelots, while their rough exterior enabled us to coat them with matt black engine paint. This reduces their modern appearance significantly, especially since we rope off the area at a distance of 20-30 feet. They must be repainted annually. I chose these aluminum pots because my primary demonstration mordant is alum. At the time, I could have purchased only one stainless steel pot for the same money, of slightly less capacity. Stainless steel would still be a better choice for a variety of reasons, including quality of dye reactions and ease of cleanup.

As you arrange your demonstration area, you will want to insure that you can move freely around the dyepots, without hindrance from observers. For us, this means roping off the area at a distance of about 25 feet all the way around the fire. Since we often demonstrate in a setting that allows us to have tourists only on one side of the fire, we place the ‘least correct’ pots the greatest distance from the spectator line---and they are obscured by smoke or steam a great deal of the time.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

7. How Much Fire?

Amazingly enough, when you get to the actually dyeing, you rarely boil the dyebath. Most dyeing occurs in the 130-170 degree range. Many dyes are ruined and the color destroyed if the dye is allowed to boil. This is especially true for red dyes.

As a result, we use a lot of lump hardwood charcoal (not modern match light) and spend a lot of time moving fire around. Pots are supported on firebrick or stones, and coals moved from a separate hardwood fire maintained nearby.

High quality wood is essential for maintaining temperature control. You will find that you cannot rely on ‘site wood’ to maintain the even heat needed for quality dye operations. At home, I work over a propane burner. For historical presentations, I tend to bring my own wood, or purchase wood near the site. This presents its own problems, as I end up also having to guard my purchased wood pile from folks who assume its community wood.

You’d rather mess with dyepots and talk to tourists than mess with the fire all day. A good supply of lighter pine (fatwood) and a big sack of lump hardwood charcoal tends to leave you with a lot more free time to do what you want to do. Unlike some conveniences, they did have it and they did use it

Over time, you’ll learn to tell the difference between 140 degrees and 150 degrees by how the steam rises off the water. Until you do, you’ll need a small clip on thermometer for the side of the dyepot. I use the ones made by Pampered Chef, as they give a quick accurate read—in about 10 seconds, and then can hide in my apron pocket until needed again.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

8. Preparing the Dyebath

Most observers will think that you are dyeing with berries---this is rarely true. Berries stain. The strawberry that made a lovely red color on your t-shirt today is a sullen brown in a week or so, and the same thing would happen if you dyed with it. A great majority of natural dyes come from various barks, wood, or roots. These must be chipped, soaked, simmered to extract dye, and strained to remove the matter before adding the yarn or fiber to be dyed.

For many of these dye woods, a local woodworker’s guild is an excellent source of materials---their trash (sawdust) is literally your treasure. You may choose to place the sawdust into a bag and simmer in the dyepot, or simmer it loose and strain the liquid.

Finally you are ready to place your pre-mordanted, soaked yarn into the dyebath, and slowly raise the temperature to the recommended level, hold it for the required period of time, turning the yarn regularly, and allowing the dyebath to cool, often overnight, before removing the yarn.

With correct proportions of dyestuff, fiber, and mordant, the dyebath will be relatively clear when you remove the dyed yarn—the dyebath is ‘exhausted’—you’ve used up all the ingredients, and they are firmly fixed in the yarn.

Hang that skein up, allow it to drain and dry, then rinse thoroughly. Your receipt may also call for a ‘post mordant’ or other treatment. Rinse until the water is clear, and hang to dry out of direct sunlight.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

9. Suggested Books and References

I’m not going to go into particular dye processes here. They are complicated, and there are thousands of them, both period and modern. What I will do is list some books that give a number of fine receipts.

(Elizabeth-----------This section left blank until I can get home to my own library and cite some specific books. And I’ve promised Susan Hughes some specific ‘how to’ write ups of period receipts that are underway.)

Suggested short courses:

The John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina is devoted to the preservation and instruction of traditional art and craft in a non-competitive environment designed for adult students. http://folkschool.org/

In essence, it is summer camp for grown ups, with better food, better housing, better crafts, and more fun. Many techniques taught in these courses are useful in historical presentations, but do require extensive additional research ensure authenticity for the time period presented.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

10. Final Steps

Remember how that nicely ordered, nicely tied skein looked way back when you made it? If you have handled your yarn carefully, it shouldn’t be too hard to get back there. Reorder that skein, and make sure it is completely dry before winding yarn into smaller skeins or balls.

If you do a good bit of this, your helper will get very tired of holding skeins while you unwind them---thankfully there is also a piece of equipment for this. An umbrella swift adjusts and holds a skein of yarn at the proper tension and turns while you unwind the skein. While little plastic and metal ones are available, you’ll need a wooden one, with at least a 2 yard circumference. Depending on style and load bearing capacity, they will run from $100-$400.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

11. Other Tools and Equipment

Bluette Gloves: There will be times when placing your hands in water that is near to boiling just seems like the thing to do. You may be fishing for a skein tie, moving a dyestuff bag, checking the clarity of the dye bath, or adding a mordant mix that cannot be allowed to splash. While anyone who does this hobby is, by definition, Pretty Nuts, that does not mean stupid. These gloves are blue, near to elbow length, insulated, and will allow you to put your hand in the water for about 30 seconds. Turn your back to the crowd and put them on. Check them for leaks before each event. Expect to pay about $18 a pair.

Do not rely on Bluettes to preserve your brand new expensive false fingernails and French manicure. Trust me on this one. When the nails melt and stick to the inside of the gloves, the gloves are ruined too

Sharp Pokey Sticks: That’s what Kimberlee Bruce calls them, and she considers them a weapon of choice against marauding soldiers. I call them dye forks. Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill Kentucky calls them Shaker Laundry Forks and occasionally has them in stock for a reasonable price.

You’ll want one for blues and browns, one for yellows, one for reds, and one for the mordant pot. If you are like me, you’ll want some more because you will lay them down around the camp and can’t find them when you need them. Sister has her own set, marked so I can’t get hers. You’ll use them for gently turning skeins in the mordant and dye baths, and for lifting and draining skeins over the pot.

Made of hardwood, with two thick sharpened prongs, and about 3 feet long overall, these cost from $20-30 each. If you have someone make them for you, the handle should be as thick as your wrist, and of strong, well cured wood. You really don’t want to risk one of these breaking when you have a wet skein hiked up in the air, streaming steaming dye back into the pot.

Bellows: If you can locate a good period looking bellows in working condition, or restore one with leather, it’s a great aid with dyepot fires, as you need to control temperature and keep even fires. It does require you to bend and get fairly close to the fire to use. I’ve got one, but I find a blowpipe easier to use,

Blow Pipe: Alas, this is not the little plastic bubble thingie you played with as a child. It’s a piece of hollow iron stock, 3-5 feet long, with a nice flared mouthpiece at one end, and a narrowed hole at the other. If you have a deluxe model, there is also a hook applied at that end to aid you in moving wood, and balancing the blowpipe. Place it at the base of the fire and blow OUT to heat up your fire.

Remove your mouth. Turn your head. INHALE. Now place your mouth back on the blowpipe and exhale again. You will only have to mix up inhale and exhale one time to learn that lesson thoroughly, so I will not caution against it here.

Do not use your hollow blowpipe as a dye fork when you can’t find the others, and hike up a streaming, steaming skein in front of a big group of tourists, with the other end of the hollow blowpipe somewhere in the general vicinity of the top of your corset. Trust me on this one too.

To get a good blowpipe, look for a competent looking blacksmith. He will probably not have the hollow stock with him at the event. I have no idea what blowpipes really costs---Sister and I have fed blacksmiths for so many years, we just don’t pay for iron work.

Blacksmith: Okay, Blacksmiths are neither tools nor equipment—but you’ll find they are excellent craftsmen to have around and you can establish a mutually beneficial relationship.

Blacksmiths get up early, start a fire and make strong coffee. You need a shovel of coals and a bucket of coffee to start your day, and wake your dyepot fires up. Way down at the end of your dyepot fires, you’ll have a small area slightly removed and upwind, and put on something for breakfast while you are building up your own fires. Blacksmiths will have done about 2 hours work by the time the cheese grits are done and will eat whatever you don’t. Sling a second bucket of something on the fire and call it dinner. Blacksmiths will eat anything.

When you are ready to start a dye pot of black walnut and iron, head over to the blacksmith’s ‘quench bucket’. This will be a large container of water that they use to cool iron work. Over several days, it will be full of small iron particles. Pour that water through a muslin filter and into your iron wash pot along with the black walnut hulls. This will produce a darker, more colorfast brown than the black walnut hulls alone. Fill their quench bucket back up with plain water.

Wendy Osman Federal Issue Nested Mess Kettles: These sheet iron mess kettles make a dandy dyepot. Trouble is, you DO have to choose which ones you will cook in and which ones you will dye in. Make a decision. Stick with it. Make sure folks in your camp know that it is an important distinction----think of it like keeping a Kosher kitchen. For us, the small mess kettles (which feed as many folks as I am willing to cook for) are the cook pots, and the large mess kettles are the dye pots. The medium ones, we haul water in. Right up around the rim of the dyepots, a Sharpie Marker has printed "Not for Food"

Fire Bricks: You’ll want to support your larger pots on fire bricks---the sort of brick made for the inside of fireplaces. Make a U shaped base with two courses of brick and seat the pot firmly over them. This will enable you to get fire under the pot. These are better than rocks or soft brick, both of which tend to break under fire, and dump 30 gallons of water on a fire—where it then turns to steam and makes a nasty burn on anyone in the path.

Fire irons, S hooks, trammel hooks, and spyders: While you will support your larger pots on fire brick, your smaller pots can be suspended from sturdy fire irons---two uprights and a cross bar, with S and trammel hooks for height adjustment. Don’t waste your money on the run of the mill fire irons found at most reenactments--- a couple of Osman mess kettles full of water will make those kneel right down after a few hours in the fire. Your friend the Blacksmith will make them thick and heavy enough to hold the pots. Same thing on the spyders—you may wish to have them made to fit certain pots, and can use them in lieu of firebricks if you have this done properly.

Rope: You can’t have too much rope either. No, you can’t tie up obnoxious children with it. Besides, if you did, you’d have to keep them, and if they are ill-mannered, you’d really rather they went on home.

You’ll want a high quality thick hemp rope for hanging yarn skeins (look to 18th century vendors for this). You will be appauled at the price for hand made rope. Take them some yarn and go trading.

You’ll need a gracious plenty of manila rope to establish the perimeter around your dye area. You’ll also need some iron stanchions (the Blacksmith is your friend) to drive into the ground, with an eye on top to accommodate the rope. Now, you don’t normally see this sort of perimeter established in CW period presentations, though they are common in other time periods.

Your set up is different from most---you’ve got more fire, you’ve got more hot water, you’ve got skeins dripping boiling water hanging in the air, you’ve got chemicals, you’ve got smoke, you’ve got steam, and you are half blind from all of it. About the time you pull a pound of boiling yarn out of the dye pot and walk towards the hanging line, little Johnny is going to run over to see if your fire is hot and if you are having spaghetti for dinner. His Momma is not going to buy your explanation that he should not have run under the boiling dye stream and tripped you. You would much rather Johnny and His Momma be on the other side of the rope line. Once you have wiped the sweat out of your eyes, you can go over there and answer all their questions. You need to sit down and get a drink of water anyway.

Square Shovel and Scuttle: A rectangular shovel blade with a flat bottom, and turned up long sides is ideal for moving fire. You’ll want a short length handle with a period D end to it. You also need a thick bottomed bucket or scuttle to carry fire from one place to the other, especially if you are moving fire from the blacksmith’s or your sleeping quarters fireplace. Its always easier to start your dye fires from coals that from scratch.

Period Buckets: You can’t have too many of them. All that yarn has to soak for 24 hours before in goes in the dyepots, so it will take up dye evenly.

Trouble is, period metal buckets also rust easily. When I first get them, I spray them with a good quality clear acrylic paint inside and out. Don’t use these for drinking water. Once you have learned the features of a good period tin bucket, do some careful shopping at the local feed and seed---you may luck out and find tinned buckets with proper period lines, with incorrect galvanized ‘ears’. These buckets will cost you about $15. The spot on correct period repros without galvanizing will run you about $75. Pay your money and make your choice.

Since I need a dozen buckets on hand, and replace them about every two years, I use the $15 buckets, and paint the exterior and the galvanized ‘ears’ in a good period color, and coat the interior with a clear rust inhibitor. The dye chemicals are still going to eat them up in 18-24 months.

Wooden buckets have their own uses and their own drawbacks, not the least of which is the need to keep them wet all the time, whether you are running dye pots or not. I don’t use them in a dye setting since wood chemicals can have an affect on the fibers being dyed. I do use wooden barrels for yarn soaking, but they have a plastic liner inside that cannot be seen from the spectator line.

Painted Canvas: Another one of those things you cannot have too much of. Woodpiles and charcoal containers must be covered against rain. Freshly dyed yarn should be covered overnight, or if there is a lot of pollen in the air. Soaking yarn should be covered to keep out children and animals. Large water containers should be covered if there are any small children in the vicinity (in other words, always) due to drowning dangers. To a toddler, a mop bucket is a large water container.

Gimme Basket: A couple of times a year, some well intentioned person will bring me a sheep fleece that they got somewhere because it was being thrown away. That is because most wool this far south isn’t any good for spinning and those sheep that grew it were destined for the table. That greasy smelly wool goes in a big plastic bag, and gets dumped into a big handwoven oak basket right on the spectator line. Children are thrilled to take handful while we are talking about carding and spinning wool. They cram it into their jean pocket, and I imagine it makes a big mess in the washing machine when they get home. Maybe they remember what it was when their Mama asks them. Maybe they learned something.

Your mileage and your choices for safety, authenticity and presentation in a historical setting will most certainly vary. These are simply mine, based on experience, economics, and a heck of a lot of school programs.

And yes, over time, the children do learn something. Between Sister, Darling Daughter and me, we’ve got over 30 years in steady presentations to school groups in three different historical time periods, from 1740 to 1865.

Now, I can pretty well count on middle school children in west central Alabama to know how long it took a woman in 1862 to spin and knit a man’s pair of socks, why she had to do that, what that might mean to a child their own age, and how little clothing they would have had themselves.

It’s a start.

[Spinster]

Re: dyeing yarn

Next up----

Addressing the process of 'dyeing in the wool' --dyeing wool before it is spun.

Yes, there is a reason behind that expression 'dyed in the wool'. We'll get there :D