Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Sprinkle Dyeing - a tutorial - Part 3

Step 5 - the wrap and dunk: The yarn is folded up into the saran wrap and placed into another pan. Once this pan has several little yarn packs I fill with water and slide in oven. I then cook this on the "warm" setting for 1 1/2 hours. I don't know what temp this is, it just says "warm". I think it's about 150 degrees.

Step 6 - the rinse and spin: Once the dye is set with heat the packs are allowed to cool. I then unwrap and rinse each skein, rinsing any remaining dye out. The skeins are then put back into the washing machine to spin out excess water. Then hang to dry.
So there you have it... "Sprinkle Dye" Hope this is helpful and inspirational. If you try this and would like to share or have questions, leave me a comment, send me an email (namastejulie@yahoo.com), or direct me to your photo sharing page (I use flickr).

I use this technique for dyeing yarn. I've tried it with roving but didn't like the results, so my rovings are handpainted in the usual way. Also, the "sprinkle" effect will differ with the amount of water you add before adding the dye. The more you wet the yarn the more it will blend.

11 comments:

Morandia said...

do you have an idea of the total amount of dye used per skein? Maybe 1 tsp? or more? or less? just curious....

LOVE the tutorial! Thanks so much!

Julie Lynn Paper co. said...

Total. Like if I measured them all together? Yeah probably about 1tsp. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Brianna said...

Thanks for sharing this, J! What an interesting technique.

Randy said...

Thank-you so much for sharing your technique. I just love your yarns.

Morandia said...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3360/3415439535_cb5e3ec176.jpg

this is what my green skeins turned out like. Just wanted to share!

Katie, a dyer at Yarn Love said...

Lovely tutorial - thanks for posting it!I find it fascinating to see how others dye. (I do try to help out new dyers on Rav, too. Because dyeing is a great study in trial and error.)I don't think I would have ever thought to do dry "sprinkle" dyeing on blank yarn. That's probably because I mix liquid stock solutions so I don't have to fiddle with a respirator. While I've sprinkled dry dye onto already dyed fiber I've never done anything quite like this.

Have you ever heat set in a roasting pan on top of the stove? I have 4 enameled roasting pans (They look like yours in the photo only enameled.) And I kettle dye in those, with the roaster spanning both my front and back burners. I wonder how things would turn out if you could skip the wring and wrap stage. I might give it a try today, as i'm going to be in the studio.

Also, you can easily go up to 350 degrees in your oven for a short period of time without adversely affecting your wool. If you have heavy duty plastic wrap - I use Costco brand - you can even leave it at that temp without melting the plastic into the yarn and it helps set things faster.

Julie Lynn Paper co. said...

Morandia - I'm not able to get the link to work. What is your flickr ID and I'll look it up that way?

Katie - Thanks for the advice. When I upgrade my dye equipment I might try to get some of the pans like you mentioned. This would allow for more skeins to heat at once. I have left the skeins in the pan and heated them like that, but I found that I was able to do more skeins at once by wrapping.

Thanks everyone for your words of appreciation. I very happy that you liked it.

Morandia said...

flickr id is morandia

try this for a shot: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3360/3415439535_cb5e3ec176_b.jpg

woolydaisy said...

great tutorial!!!! i have a question-when you fill your pan with all your saran wrap packs of yarn-how much water do you add? just a little for steaming or are the bundles completely submerged?
thank you!

Julie Lynn Paper co. said...

I add enough water to allow the packets to float. I don't like the idea of the plastic wrap touching the pan, afraid it will stick or something. I don't think it will, but just in case.

Wendi said...

great tutorial! Thanks so much for sharing.