last week i had tried to buy the dylon dyes for wool that i previously used but had
to learn that the product has been changed. the packages are larger and more expensive of course and - surprise, surprise - a 50g package of dye powder for about 4 times the price also dyes only 250g of fabric/fibre! it was also not clear from the text on the package what the dye would look like on wool (lighter than cotton was all the information given). well, we won't know before we try:
i mixed the dye powder of one pack
age with 250g of salt, added 500 ml warm water and stirred until dye powder and salt were dissolved. then i added another 3 l of cold water, stirred and added 300g of wet merino tops. they instantly took on colour, after 30 min i decided to add another 200g of wool. after an hour of soaking i removed the wool from the dye bath. the 200g added later turned out much lighter. several rinses were necessary to remove any access dye which however seemed to have lost its dyeing power. the 'ocean blue' i used came out as a strong royal blue. the second skein was dyed with 'denim blue'
pros: 1. no heating/simmering, 2. easy to add additional wool after short periods of time to gradate colours from dark to light 3. fast results
cons: 1. price (between R34 and R56 per package, depending on the colour - the little tins used to cost between R13 and R16), 2. most shops don't carry the whole range of colours, product has to be ordered.
Carol, i am sure you can give a more scientific explanation about these dyes. what are they? fibre reactive? or...?
2 comments:
Interesting all round. Inflation Strikes! Fascinating how prices only go up not down. I’m wondering if Dylon gives starting temperature for the dye bath? They could be fibre reactive dyes which although considered ‘cold-water’ dyes usually need to start at 60 C. Maybe the 300g of wool entered first soaked up all the salt and if you’d soaked the 200g in salt before adding to the mix, it might have taken more dye? I’ve never exhausted a Dylon dye bath yet. When I found some notes on the composition of Dylon Dyes, they seem to put several different types of dye into the same packet to cope with the different materials. Much of this remains not used – pity we need pay for all that waste of dye powder. When I tried their old cold-water dyes, I was terribly disappointed in the result – horribly wishy-washy! You have me so curious I need to see if I can get the new packaged dyes. I guess it will only be common in the shops when they need new stock.
i got the dyes at our local chemist - he ordered them for me within a day.
on the packet they are talking about mixing salt and dye powder with warm (40degr.) water.
i'll put in the photo now, the second colour is denim (or jeans?) blue.
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