I've really not had that much practice at the crock pot dyeing. It was only last May, that I got a little carried away (again) on my trip back to the US. It was the beginning of my dyeing experience and I was feeling good about it. Had many successful attempts in the micro and stove. So I went to STUFF MART while I was home. I measured the suitcase. SHOOT!! The turkey roaster won't fit!! But the 8 qt. Crock Pot will. So I stuffed more stuff in that crock pot than humanly possible. More than 8 qts!
Whew! It made it threw. No scrapes, no breaks, no cracks. OK... Let's dye something. First try. UGLY! Brownish, yellowish, poohish. Looks good plyed with brown. So, it worked out ok. Next. The Aqua. That did alright. One colour. Hard to go to wrong. I've been reading blogs on this subject. How do people get bright clear multi coloured wool? Mine is murky, smudgy, dull.
So, I tried last night. Three primaries in the separate corners. They'll blend nicely and I'll have Secondary colours. Lovely.... NOT!! More Murk... Bright Murk, but not clear by any means. If anyone knows of a good blog or tutorial on crock pot dyeing. Let me know.
Out in the bright sun, it doesn't look so bad, but no green, muddy purple. AAARRRGGG!!! Try, try again.
5 comments:
Your success looks great!
have you tried the dye happy yahoo group? They usually have lots of tips on it.
Think it all turned out quite nice though myself!
Glad you enjoyed The Last Knit!!
I've not tried crock pot dyeing, but I have used a pot on the stove and I'm assuming that they are not all that different. I think if you pack your wool fairly tightly then there is less chance for bleeding and less chance for muddy, mucky colours. Also, when we did it, we divided the pot in equal thirds or quarters, like you would cut a pie. And we didn't cover it. We also gently poked the fleece with a spoon to push the dyes to the bottom and hand blend the adjacent colours.
I hope that some of this helps. Good luck getting your desired results.
it still looks good to me!! all your stuff amazes me... almost as much as you amaze me. love you
I use ammonium sulfate as my acid. And washfast acid dyes. It is fertalizer. I get it from a farm feed store. Pro Chemical has directions on how to use it. I mix the dye really strong and get the fiber wet then spin in the washer to get it almost dry, it sucks up the dye then so the colors dont bleed too much.
Deb
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