I'm going to need your help with this one | Claude Tries Yarn Dyeing

I don't think this one was very successful. Any advice about how to make my hand dyed yarn stay dyed would be greatly appreciated!

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[crabbiecrackers]

I don't think we ever really grow out of our "making potions in the back garden" stage lol

[lisasilver]

I am a yarn dyer. I would put it through a 30degree wash in the washing machine for a good rinse, you may loose a little more colour, but its not totally rinsed out which is why its crunchy. I would also add some soap powder and fabric softener - just a small amount to the machine wash. Dylon is much less forgiving than acid dye. Much harder to use, and never really produces good results. I dyed Nike socks for a company, they are cotton and nylon and i put them in the machine with dylon. They came out very well, but did fade over time, each time they were washed.

You would have had a much better experience using acid dye and wool. It normal for these dyes to bleed - you did nothing wrong to loose as much colour as you did.

[SamIAm]

Definitely only ever heard it called Dye-lon so I think you're good.

[melimsah]

Okay, the ASMR of "being outdoors" (including power tools, wind, breathing, phone vibrations, etc) with minimal cuts, it's doing magical things to my brain, being cooped up inside working while Arizona weather is hitting record highs for late September.

[feltaria]

Ignore everyone who says to use vinegar. That’s for acid dyes. Dylan is a fibre reactive dye and behaves differently. And hair conditioner works on wool because it’s designed for our hair which has similar properties. My experience with Dylan on cotton is that it just doesn’t set very well and you get loads of dye run off when rinsing. My suggestion at this point would be to re wash everything with some soap as that may well shift some more dye molecules which are sitting on the surface but held within the plies and then pop everything in lingerie bags and do a rinse and spin in your washing machine as I suspect some of the crunchiness would go at that point. When you do acid dyeing, you rinse with cold water and then at the end, you use soap. I think your drying rack is doomed though because Dylan dyes polyester and other plastics so I think you’ve inadvertently dyed it. I think the wool is so pale because it was an exhaust bath so although the water looked dark, there weren’t that many dye molecules left to be taken up. Good luck with future dyeing adventures. Having tried all sorts, I can definitely say that the one that needs least rinsing is acid dyes on wool as the wool pulls all the dye out of the water and holds it so you only need 1 rinse.

[lindsaythegreat]

I can't speak to the dyeing process, but when my regular clothes dry "crunchy" I toss them in the tumble dryer on the no-heat setting for a few minutes. If you have lingerie bags, that should keep tangles at bay.

I don't know how prevalent salad spinners are in the UK, but if you come across one in a charity shop it might help with the rinsing and wringing out process.

[corriemcclain]

I've found from many dying experiments, you can not have the water too hot. Also the final color will be dramatically paler than the color you see when it's wet. I leave things to soak for hours

[suem]

Do a glug of 5percent vinegar into a rinse bath. The vinegar binds up excess dye which may have helped your drying rack. I even do a vinegar rinse with my hair dye rinsed out of course.
Dharma Trading Company is THE dyeing company in the US. They have great tutorials on dyeing all sorts of fibers. They sell all the blank or undyed fabrics and skeins plus all the chemicals for dyeing those. Dharma is MY go to people with questions about dyeing. I had to dye milk protein fiber and needed their advice. They have written and a few video tutorials.

I had to dye every year of my master handspinner course. Not that good at it but luckily we were not graded on dyeing.

I think you did very well considering. Maybe give the skeins a vinegar rinse followed by a clear rinse to halt more bleeding of dye.

[kjtherrick]

I've never dyed anything, so kudos to you for doing this! I look forward to seeing what you make with these yarns.

[nixhixx]

If they don't pronounce it 'Dye-Lawn' they're missing a beat.

Like the people who pronounce Frixion pens as FriX-eon instead of Friction

[amyharris]

The way the Paintbox cotton turned out reminds me of a spring onion! The color you achieved is far and away an improvement and I’m certainly staying tuned for an update to see if it bleeds any more.

[Hide_and_silk]

A bit of googling and it seems that Dylon uses soda ash (alkaline) as a mordant (fixative) so using vinegar (acid) with Dylon might not be such a good idea... Definitely try acid dyeing - it's works exceptionally well with protein fibres and will give you very satisfying results...the technique even works with food colouring and is colour fast through multiple washes (see my other comment).

[matthodek]

Claude:"I'm doing all of this by eye..", my honest thought: "It's ok, you have your tea." 😀 I drink tea all year now. I think better when I have a warm cup of it in my hand. Sadly, I can be of no assistance with the dye. Chemistry has always been my least favorite of the sciences. I do agree that they turned out well, and hopefully you can get some good advice so that it is at least worth making them up into something. Thinking about how a dye pattern will look once knitted up tickles a part of my brain... 🤓 I am glad you enjoyed it. Take care till next time. 🦆

[ellakae]

Yarn dyeing feels so intimidating to me so this was a fun video to live vicariously through 😄

[madebylora]

I definitely think you are right about the pronunciation of Dylon, I mean it’s dye, so “dye-lon” makes perfect sense! It’s like when I hear people pronouncing Nutella as “noo-tella”, it’s clearly supposed to be “nut-ella” because of the hazelnuts! I’m not generally one to get on my soap box about pronunciation but there are a few that get me going! Hahahaha

[BookCat]

Air drying can sometimes cause that crunchy effect and the amount of the salt might have also caused a slight drying texture. I agree with the recommendations of vinegar or some other dye binder, even a Rit dye catcher sheet or two might help. And some wool wash might add some softness back

[ArwynArising]

I'm also just venturing into dyeing (so listen to the professionals first!), but I find it really helpful to keep in mind that the natural fibers we work with come in two types: cellulose (the plants: cotton, flax/linen, hemp, ramie, etc), and protein (the animals: wool, silk, alpaca, mohair, and so on). The two types of fibers need two different types of dye treatment, because their make up is so different. That's why the wool didn't take hardly any color, it's just not the right dye for it.

(Don't ask me to speak on the manufactured or semi manufactured type materials, I have no idea what works with those, lol, I just look it up each time.)

I'm really glad you found ways for it to work for you! I do wonder if you could let batches soak between rinses, to give yourself more rest breaks? Or even just do a rinse, dump it out, set it aside, and come back to rinse more later. Pacing is definitely my challenge too when it comes to longer projects like this.

[anonymousperson]

Rit Color Stay Dye Fixative! My mum uses it when she's ice dying, and I've had good luck using it on garments that bleed. If you want to check if it's still bleeding, what my mum does is wash it with something white she doesn't care about (tea towels and bits from mockups are her go-to). If the white thing is still white after a wash, your skin and other garments should be totally safe :)

[elisestewart]

I have also found that a couple of quick rinses and then leaving the yarn in a big container of clean water to soak overnight works well without all the effort

[marabanara]

Take the kids! Claude has new video out! I’m shutting my door!”