Hatrack River Forum: Dieing to Dye

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Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

In Annie's job thread its clear that there are several people here who know alot about dying fabrics and fibers. I have this enormous spool of raw silk yarn that I'm dieing to dye but I have no idea what I'm doing.

What hints and resources can people give me about dyeing silk and yarn?

Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :

You start by . . . Well, you can . . . And have you thought of . . .

Nope. Blank. Sorry! [ROFL]

Good luck, though. It sounds like a great fun project!

Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :

Ask Belle; if memory serves me correct she would know what to do.

Kwea

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

Hey Rabbit!

Ooohh I love dyeing silk! I use procion fiber reactive dyes, they work great on natural fibers like silk and cotton. However, the colors tend to shift on silk - for example fire red turns out fuchsia on silk.

There are dyes made especially for silk, I don't use them because they require steam setting and I'm lazy.

Get started at Dharma. They have all the supplies and tons of good info on what to do and how.

Main page is http://www.dharmatrading.com

Here is a section on hand painting silk ribbon - it may give you hints on how to do your yarn, even though they use paints instead of dyes

http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1687254-AA.shtml

Are you wanting these yarns to be one color or multi-colored?

One tip - if you decide to use fiber reactive dyes and need soda ash, don't order it, it's heavy and costs too much to ship. Just buy it locally, you can find it either in the laundry section or, where I get mine, is in the pool section at Walmart.

Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :

Thanks Belle,

I was hoping to dye this in multiple colors but I'm still exploring options.