Friday, September 22, 2017

Cake dyeing








On Friday we got together for a dyeing day! Donna had everything ready for us to cake dye. The skeins above are Robin's and mine.

I did the dry method. My yarn cake was dry and I used dye power. I carefully wedged my fingers into different spots in the cake and poured dye power in. I used a few different colors in each and while I love how my skeins turned out I think I would use less dye next time. Mine are the autumn colors one and the black with green and blue, they are all darker and brighter in person.

Robin did a combo of wet and dry methods, starting with a dry cake and adding prepared dye, she did the center and then switched to the dry method and processed it as a wet skein. Her second one was entirely the dry method. 

The wet method started with a wet cake, then you would add wet prepared dye, then wrap the cake up in plastic wrap and steam it for like a half hour.

The dry method finishes with placing the cake in a crackpot bag, we added water with vinegar to cover the cake. We then partially closed the bags and cooked them for about an hour.

After the heat set, the cakes were allowed to cool and rinsed off. I was initially disappointed in my first one, but as I rinsed it colors other than black revealed themselves. 

I steam set and rinsed all the skeins again when we got home. Looking forward to seeing everyone else's skeins!