Fibermania

The Planets Aligned or I finally got off my butt

The dye bottles lined up more or less in rainbow order, with one green leftover because it is dirty and dark. Great color, just not a rainbow member. I also mixed up a teeny bit of black (not pictured) to add in small amounts as I go along. I need lables to make sure I am using the right color, but don't have any, so it is just a hope that I pick the right bottle. They are moist and slippery and I dropped magenta on the concrete and will have to powerwash the stain or hear "I told you so". A little bleach will take care of it.

I am dyeing silk today and have presoaked them in soda ash and spun them out in the washing machine. I combined three dry layers first and rolled them up and placed them in a Rubbermaid bin with the soda soak solution.
***OOPS***
I left out this important step: After the fabric is soaked in the soda ash water, it is wrung out and then put in my washer to spin out the excess water. Then putting one roll of three layers on a sheet of styrofoam,  and unrolling them...

Then I pour the dyes on. This is a no brainer.

But the fabric is wet and the dye is wet and it gets to be too much, I discovered long ago.

So I place a dry untreated piece of cotton on top to soak up the excess liquid. In seconds the excess dye is absorbed by the cotton and produces interesting patterns on that layer. The soda ash is already in the dye from the presoaked silk and so it works to dye the cotton too. Trust me on this.

Here is that same piece on the shelf. The pleats that were white are now colored. Some parts of the cotton are white, but the silk underneath looks just smooth or with bubbles, but nothing of the patterns that are visible on the cotton.
It's pretty cool how this works.

The weather is dry and sunny with no humidity and just perfect for a dye day.

I dyed six platters, with 18 half yards of silk and six pieces of cotton. Lots of dye is leftover and I will do more tomorrow, when this stuff is dry, hopefully.

I am not covering the fabric, not using salt, urea, or anything but soda ash and dye and water. When the fabric is dry, it is done. If it dries in a few hours I can wash it out today. I doubt it, as it is not very hot.