The Color Lab: Colors to Dye For

HURON SUNSET, 24″ x 14″, #3-#8-cut wool and hand torn strips on linen. Designed and hooked by Wanda Kerr, Wiarton, Ontario, 2001. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF WANDA KERR

Part One: Slow Cooker Dyeing

Since it’s summer, if you’re like most dyers you try not to dye or even hook right now. I try to get most of my projected dyeing done in the cooler months when my dry house welcomes a steam bath. Of course there are always “emergencies,” when better judgement goes out the window and I run into some pressing need for wool and I do what shouldn’t be done. However, I am a delicate flower and wilt easily in the heat, so I have tried to think of ways I could dye during summer without heating up the kitchen.

There are plenty of inventive people around and I try to make my life easier by learning from them. I looked around to see what is already in common use for cooking during the summer besides the stove and oven, and found the gas powered BBQ, slow cooker, electric frying pan, and an electric wok. Why couldn’t they work for “cool” dyeing too?

Slow Cooker Dyeing

I picked my slow cooker up at a yard sale for $5. It’s a small two-quart model, and will hold 1/2 yard of wool or less. I often tote it along when I teach as everything I need to dye fits inside the pot. Usually my dyeing “emergencies” do not require a great deal of wool. We can be dyeing as we hook and learn, and it is amazing what can be done in even a small slow cooker with no attention paid to it at all. Well, perhaps a little attention is good, since once I plugged the slow cooker in to check an outlet, got distracted, and melted several things including a jar of dye! If you are a busy person who doesn’t like “dyeing mess,” slow cooker dyeing is for you. A wonderful collection of wool will be yours by just dyeing a 1/4-yard of wool  after dinner with a minimum of fuss. I also like to use the slow cooker to dye bits of things, like stripettes, small pieces of wool I want to join in happy color matrimony, nylons, and I have even been known to dye feathers in it.

I always remain in my home when I dye with the slow cooker. But I don’t need to constantly attend to the process as I do when using the stove or oven. I always set it on high, but if you wanted to leave it unattended set it on low. Remember it takes less time to dye wool than to cook flank steak!

PRO Chem wash-fast acid dyes recently introduced 31 new colors and I used some of their winter colors for these dye methods. Don’t feel you must get them all. Just look at the color chart and choose the ones that make you happy and at least one you think is ugly. Ugly will bring out the best in the pretty colors. Also think about the colors you have a hard time achieving while dyeing—maybe olive green or burgundy and add those to your dye collection. Suit your own purpose when making dye purchases.

The first time I used the slow cooker I had an adventurous spirit and with no specific goal in mind, I grabbed a 1/4 yard piece of yellow and over-dyed it with Majic Carpet 1/32 teaspoon Seal Brown and 1/32 teaspoon Red Violet of equal proportions. It came out looking like a beautiful sunset with very expressive light and dark portions. Next I put a 1/4 yard of Dusty Blue and added 1/32 Majic Carpet Blue Violet. This ended up looking like a sky and a rug was born!

To replicate this Huron Sunset I overdyed three colors of wool—Dorr corn, a pink, and blue each in 1/4-yard pieces.

Method

Add water to slow cooker to fill it 2/3 full. Add 1/16 teaspoon citric acid crystals or 1/4 cup vinegar. Interchange these two acids to achieve similar results. Dissolve dye pow-der in one cup of boiling water and pour it into the slow cooker Place the soaked wool into the pot, randomly squishing/cramming it in, but letting some wool rise above the water level. Put the lid on and wait until the water clears and then rinse the wool well.

Formula

Dark sky

Dye over 1/4 yard of medium or light blue and 1/4  yard of pink wool in the same pot.(If you don’t have pastel wool, dye it your-self and then go ahead with this process)

1/8 tsp #350 wine rose

1/4 tsp #441 slate blue

Sunset

Dye over 1/4-yard pink and 1/4 yard of yellow wool in the same pot.

1/4 tsp #350 wine rose

1/32 tsp #230 spiced pumpkin

This is a simple and easy way to make strongly abrashed material quickly, Select a good handful of strippettes in random colors. The more colors you dye over the greater variety of values you will end up with.

Add water to fill your slow cooker half way, add a squirt of Jet Dri or Synthrapol and throw the strippettes in. Add 2/32 teaspoon of #368 Paprika and 1/32 teaspoon citric acid crystals.

Look at the fabulous array!  You could use these as a swatch. The beauty of dyeing these in the slow cooker —no stirring is necessary. The less you manipulate stripettes while dyeing the better they behave. They can get tangled and somewhat matted if you “play” with them too much. Pick them up with tongs and run water over them to rinse. Then press down on them to remove excess water and roll them in a towel to get them a little bit dryer before laying them on a heat register. If you were doing a lot of them you could lay them out on a towel to dry in a warm place.

Wonder Wool

I was looking for way to use a small piece of wool that was an end of a bolt and too small to be sold as my usual 18″ length. I stum-bled on doing this quite by accident. “Nothing to lose” is a good motto; when I use that attitude I gain knowledge and great wool every time.

Method

Soak a half-yard of natural wool in three cups of water in the bottom of the slow cooker. Get it hot.

This formula used in this method is called Vista.

Add in 1/8 teaspoon #670 mocha chino and 1/4 teaspoon citric acid crystals. Gather the wool along the long edge, hold it 1/3 of the way from the top as though your were strangling it with one hand. You will have a flower of sorts drooping over your hand. Plunk the other end into the slow cooker.

Push it down so you can place the lid on.

When the water appears clear, mix 1/8 teaspoon #120 golden pear with two cups of water. Before you add this dye, open the wool not in the water and drape it over the edge of the pot so you can see into the center of the wool. Use tongs and be careful, as it will be hot.

Pour the second dye into the center (#120 golden pear)

Place the lid on with wool still over the edge. Fold the wool over the lid so it does not wick up water from the pot and drip all over your counter top.

When the water clears again, push the remaining wool most recently on the out-side of the lid into the pot. Mash it down and add the third color, 1/8 teaspoon #441 slate blue dissolved in one cup of boiling water by pouring it over the top of the wool.

Here is another formula to try:

Wowee

2/32 tsp of Aljo Military Green

2/32 tsp Majic Carpet Turquoise

2/32 tsp PRO Chem #230 spiced pumpkin

Use any favorite formula or dye colors you have, even leftover dye formulas to make Wonder wool. They are great to look at and a very useful addition to a hooker’s stash.

I know you can think of many wonderful ways to use your slow cooker to dye if it is hot or just because it expands your horizons. Experiment and have fun, as that is the most important ingredient for a successful dyeing session. In part two of “If You Can’t Stand the Heat . . .” I will introduce you to the electric frying pan and all that can be done with that marvelous dye tool.