Stock Solutions for Accurate Dyeing

Stock Solutions for Accurate Dyeing

There is another way to do small or large amounts and get the same results each time.  The easiest and safest way is to make a stock solution.  It’s safest because dyes are most dangerous in there powder form, when the powder can fly around and land incredibly far from where you are measuring it.  It’s best to use a mask when measuring the powder. You don’t want to inhale the powder. You need to keep records so you know what you did. What I do for acid dyes is measure 10 grams of acid dye powder into 1 litre of boiling water.  This solution will be good for up to 6 months in sealed jars. Remember to labels your containers very well so everyone knows what they are. It’s best if you keep them separate and away from any food so there are no mistakes. This gives you a 1% solution so you can use 1cc (measured in a syringe for ease) of die solution for every gram of dry dye stuff (wool roving for instance) I want to dye to a medium shade. If I was pale shades I use half as much and for dark shades up to 4 times as much. This is the most accurate method. This can be hard if you don’t have a scale that measures very small amounts. Now if you’re not that precise that’s ok. As long as you use the same amounts every time you make your solution so if you use 2 teaspoons of dye in 1 quart of water and use a syringe to measure you will be fine. When you dye something write down how much wool you had then how many cc’s of each dye you used to make the colour. I used to keep a small sample of each batch on a card with the amounts of dye used so I could reproduce it when I wanted too.

A weekend of dying

4 thoughts on “Stock Solutions for Accurate Dyeing

  1. It was fun. Each colour is about 100-150 grams. I started with the light colours and then just keep adding colours as you go. you get some interesting shades you cant repeat because of the colour that’s left in from the last batch. sometimes you put wool in to exhaust the colour that’s left over.

  2. I did have 2 pots going. it was so nice to see it all done. I need to do it again that batch is long gone.

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