over-dyeing sucess!

I bought this sock yarn at my very first ROC day hosted by the Black Sheep Handspinners guild in Ithaca NY. In the skien it reminded my of Starry night, but once wound up into a ball it started to lose some of it's appeal. When I knit it up, it looked even worse. The colors, while beautiful when separated by white, would touch when knitted up and looked a little like vomit. However, I held on to it anyway, move after move. and in a summer of 2012 when I was traveling a lot, I took this skein along to knit sock from. My reasoning was that I would knit it while distracted by travel, and knit it because I had nothing else to knit. One day I vowed that I would over-dye the finished socks. 

Why go to all this trouble for one skien, you ask? Well, readers from other countries, you have no idea how precious a resource like wool sock yarn is, until your supply is limited. Even though I can order more yarn online, the lack of selection for natural fibers locally adds a layer of value to any skein.

Left sock

 So I finally got around to dyeing it this week, along with a test bump of the some Spanish merino fiber I recently acquired. I put in purple, navy, and grey into the pot, put the socks in first, then the merino. Because I was kettle dyeing it without salt. I knew that the colors would be tonal, darker in some areas than others. I also knew that because this was an already (tightly) knit object, that the dye would attach to some areas easier then others.

Right sock

I am in love with the result, what do you think? There are areas where the original colors shine through, especially in the purl ridges of the ribbing at the top. I like it! It adds a depth to the dark color, while at the same time improving the original colors.

Hand-painting fiber / fibre pintando a mano

This is not an exhaustive tutorial, but I am learning the steps of how to dye fiber with acid dyes at home. Now you can take that journey with me. I dyed three 100 gram bumps of fiber (2 were Blue-faced Leicester and 1 was "South American" wool) on Monday. Here is what I did:

Este no es un tutorial exhaustivo, pero estoy aprendiendo los pasos sobre cómo teñir fibras con colorantes ácidos en mi casa. Ahora puedes tomar este viaje conmigo. Teñí tres cantidades de 100 gramos de fibra (2 eran Blue-faced Leicester y 1 era "América del Sur" lana) el lunes. Esto es lo que hice:

First I soaked the fiber in warm water and Synthrapol, an agent that helps to absorb the dye into the fiber. I soaked the fiber for about 30 minutes.

Primero remojé la fibra en agua caliente y Synthrapol, un agente que ayuda a absorber el colorante en la fibra. Remojé la fibra durante aproximadamente 30 minutos.

While the fiber was soaking I got out all of the other equipment that I have amassed to dye over the past few months. Here is my dye pot, which I only use for dyeing and never for cooking. The strainer is to elevate the fiber bundle above the water so that the steam can set the dye.

Mientras que la fibra se remojaba, cogí todo el equipo que he acumulado para teñir en los últimos meses. Aquí está mi olla de tinte, que yo sólo uso para teñir y no para cocinar. El colador es para elevar los paquetes de fibras por encima del agua, de modo que el vapor pueda fijar el tinte.

Here is a few jars of my dye stock, measuring syringes, plastic wrap, a beaker to measure water, paper to cover my counter and stencil brushes.

He aquí algunos tarros de mis colorantes en forma líquida, jeringas para medición, envoltorios de plástico, un cubilete para medir agua, papel para cubrir mi encimera y pinceles.

I also have my notes of what colors I want to use, notes of what concentrations to add of the dye and the citric acid, my dye journal for reference, a calculator; also not shown here, my electronic scale that can measure in 10th of a gram up to 1 kilo.

Yo también tengo mis notas de los colores que deseo utilizar, notas de qué concentraciones a añadir del colorante y del ácido cítrico, mi diario de colorantes de referencia, una calculadora; y no mostrados aquí, mi báscula electrónica que puede medir décimas de gramo hasta 1 kilo.

I measure my dye into plastic cups, and then I add 10%/(weight of fiber) of citric acid to the dye as a mordant. The pastic wrap is laid down, and I take the fiber out of the water it is soaking in and squeeze  it (not twisting it ) to remove the water. Then comes the tricky part, laying the fiber onto the plastic wrap. Note to self: do not soak the fiber as a ball, you will then have to unwind all of it and it will not be fun. You have to spread out the fiber. Here I only had about a meter of space so I made four loops of the fiber.

Yo mido mi tinte en vasos de plástico, y añado 10% / (peso de fibra) de ácido cítrico al tinte como mordiente. Pongo una capa de plástico en la encimera, y saco la fibra fuera del agua donde se estaba remojando y aprieto (sin retorcer) para eliminar el agua. Luego viene la parte difícil, poner la fibra sobre la capa de plástico. Nota mental: no empapar la fibra en la forma de una pelota, porque cuando tengas que extender la fibra, no será divertido. Hay que extender la fibra. Aquí sólo tenía alrededor de un metro de espacio, así que tuve que serpentear la fibra cuatro veces.

BFL fiber

This is just a close up shot of my set up and my jar of citric acid solution.

Esto es sólo una mirada de cerca de mis cosas incluyendo mi frasco de solución de ácido cítrico.

Next you literally paint the dye onto the fiber with a paint brush. You have to use quick up and down movements to put the dye onto the fiber, otherwise you will tangle the fibers together and make felt.

A continuación, literalmente hay que pintar el colorante sobre la fibra con un pincel. Tienes que usar movimientos rápidos hacia arriba y hacia abajo para poner el colorante sobre la fibra, de lo contrario se enredan las fibras entre sí y se hace fieltro.

BFL fiber

Then I folded the plastic wrap in half and started rolling from one end to make this fiber bundle. This bundle is now ready to go into the pot to steam.

Luego dobla el plástico por la mitad y enrolla desde un extremo al otro para hacer este haz de fibras. Este paquete ya está listo para ir a la olla a vapor.

Here are two more 100 gram amounts of fiber that I dyed that day. I am experimenting with color ways and ways to add color. Notice that I painted the colors really close to each other and deliberately used enough dye to over saturate the fiber, just a little, so that the colors would run into each other (yellow and blue makes green!).

Aquí hay dos cantidades más de 100 gramos de fibra que teñí ese día. Estoy experimentando con distintas combinaciones de colores y con la forma de añadir color. Observa que he pintado los colores muy cercanos entre sí y utilizado deliberadamente suficiente colorante para saturar la fibra, sólo un poco, de modo que los colores se mezclen entre sí (amarillo y azul hacen verde!).

BFL fiber

"South American" fiber

In the next blog post you will see how the fiber turned out once it was rinsed and dried. 

En la siguiente entrada del blog veréis el resultado una vez que la fibra se aclaró y se secó.

Starting my dye journal / iniciando mi diario tinte

I have wanted to try dying for a while. In the past I have experimented dying fiber and yarn with food colors or Kool aide. While that method is a food safe and non toxic way to add color to your fiber, the problem with that method is that the dyes are not extremely colorfast and also it is very hard to get a consistent color. The push that I needed to start using acid-fast dyes came when I moved to Spain and started spinning through my hand-dyed fiber stash. There are maybe two hand dyers of fiber that I know of in the whole country.

He querido probar a teñir desde hacía tiempo. En el pasado he experimentado tiñiendo fibras e hilados con colorantes alimenticios o con Kool aid. Mientras que ése es un método seguro y no tóxico para agregar color a la fibra, el problema es que los colorantes se destiñen y es muy difícil conseguir un color uniforme. El empujón que necesitaba para empezar a utilizar tintes resistentes con ácido llegó cuando me mudé a España y empecé a usar mi "stash" de fibras teñidas a mano. Que yo sepa, en todo el país hay quizás dos tintoreros que tiñen fibra a mano.

I love playing with color, I can not just spin all the time with white or neutrals  For me, playing with colors is the most rewarding thing about spinning. I decided to get what I needed to start hand dying at home. I started getting all of the material I needed in November.  I will go into what you need to dye on another post, because it is a lot of information and I want to take photos for a tutorial. There are plenty of tutorials in English, but in Spanish we definitely need more.

Me gusta jugar con colores, no puedo hilar todo el tiempo sólo con blanco o colores neutros. Para mí, jugar con colores es la mejor parte del hilado. Decidí conseguir lo que necesiaba para empezar a teñir a mano en casa. Empecé a obtener todo el material que necesitaba en noviembre. Describiré lo que se necesita para teñir en otra ocasión, porque hay un montón de información y quiero tomar fotos para un tutorial. Hay bastantes tutoriales en inglés, pero necesitamos más en castellano.

Today I am going to share what I did on Friday. I got out my dye pot and equipment...

Hoy voy a compartir lo que hice el viernes. Saqué mi olla para teñir y mi equipo...

...and 8 of the 10 colors of dye I have. I started putting together a dye journal. A dye journal is something my dyeing idol Deb Menz recommends to do. It is a good idea. If you have this information you will know what shade exactly you get from each dye. Now a dye journal will take a while to make as you can vary the colors in intensity (hue) and make color mixes (ie yellow + blue = green). Friday I dyed samples of yarn the 8 shades straight out of the bottle on a low intensity (depth of shade). I also mixed the dye to create four other colors just to see what I would get (bottom card - click to enlarge).

... y 8 de los 10 tintes que tengo. Empecé haciendo un diario sobre teñido. Un diario sobre teñido es algo que mi ídolo del teñido Deb Menz recomienda. Es una buena idea. Si tienes esa información, sabrás exactamente qu'e tonos consigues con cada tinte. Un diario sobre teñido es algo que llevará cierto tiempo para completar ya que puedes variar los colores en intensidad (tono) y hacer mezclas de colores (por ejemplo, amarillo+azul=verde). El viernes teñí muestras de lana con los 8 tintes tal como vienen pero con un tono bajo. También mezclé los tintes para crear 4 colores nuevos sólo para ver qué es lo obtendría (los cuatro colores en la página de la izquierda - hacer clic para agrandar).

Then I dyed 10 gram samples of fiber (white Finn wool) in (mostly) two different colors. In this way I was hoping not just to get a good idea of the "true" color on un-spun fiber, but also to get an idea of what colors would be made when those two colors meet in the center. I used the dip dyeing method, not hand-painting, because I thought that with this method I would get a bigger zone of overlap of the colors in the center. There is not as much overlap as I expected, and there are drips of color all over the place because it is a messier technique.

Entonces teñí muestras de 10 gramos de fibra (lana blanca de raza de oveja Finn) con dos colores distintos (en la mayoría de los casos). De esta forma esperaba hacerme una idea no sólo de los verdaderos colores en fibras no teñidas, pero también descubrir qué colores se formarían cuando esos dos colores se encontraran en el medio. Usé el método de teñido por inmersión en vez del método de teñido por pintado, porque pensé que con este método conseguiría una zona más extensa de superposición de los dos colores en el centro. No conseguí tanta superposición como esperaba, y hay goteos de color por todas partes porque es una técnica un tanto incontrolable.

Then in the interest of keeping organized I took small samples of the fibers from each color end, and samples from the middle. I already have a tone of ideas of different color-ways that I could make! Which ones are your favorite?

Finalmente, en un intento de intentar ser organizada, tomé muestras de fibra de los dos extremos en cada caso, y una muestra del medio. Ya tengo un montón de ideas sobre diferentes líneas de colores que puedo hacer! Cuáles son tus colores favoritos?

End of fall and dying (wool)

It looks like fall here in Madrid is ending. Where the air was crisp, now it is biting. 

The trees in my park are showing their last burst of yellow.

While on the walk to my old apartment the red leaves are fading.

Today we finally officially move out of our old apartment. We have been living in the new apartment since November 2nd but as the leases over lapped during November and our landlady lives in Murcia we are only getting around to handing over the keys today. We are getting out just in time, the other place has a mold problem you would not believe.

Yesterday I started experimenting with acid dyes and wool top. I have a lot more to learn then I expect when I started. I need to use smaller amounts of fiber and start a dye notebook. Also I really need to find citric acid crystals here in Madrid. White wine vinegar smells horrible and the white vinegar that you get in the States doesn't exist here (it is made of corn, corn is not really grown here). 

I used 8 oz of Falkland wool. My theory is that if I do not end up felting this one (as Falkland is easy to felt) then I am golden, and I will not have to worry so much about felting in the future. Here is a photo of my ~50g fiber bundles in the pot already steamed and now cooling.

 I used two different ways of applying the dye and different lengths of color. I will spin this next to see just how compacted the fiber is and how the different lengths of the color look spun up. If it is felted I can always use it as core wool for needle-felting, I just have to wait until it is dry to know.

I used only three colors to start, turquoise, violet and grey. I learned from a master dyer once that if you use colors in the same quadrant of the color wheel you will not be taking any risks of clashing. 

Pictures of it drying on the terraza this morning: