Dye Station Setup (requested)

Sarah over at Greener Shades Forum on Ravelry asked if I would post my dye station setup, probably not because there's anything ingeniuous about it (there isn't) but because it's so makeshift, but it works.

I’m having pretty good luck with where I keep gravitating to for dyeing. I’m using side-by-side washer/dryer as my “table” and I had a yoga matt type thing (bought at Barnes & Noble some years ago) and that is working out fantastically as a platform. I cut it to a manageable length (plus reserved a strip which I put on my kitchen counter when stovetop dyeing). What you see here is a length that covers my washer plus about a foot or so that spans over onto my dryer. If you put a couple of flexible (cheap) plastic cutting board mats (sticking out in the photo) to span the few inches between washer and dryer, the matt can spread across them so in case there's a spill, it won't drip down between them (horrors). Just be sure you remember where that gap is and not set a jar of dye stock right there. It is totally easy to blot up spills on the mat. It's rubberized so dye stock washes right off of it, and it’s wide enough so it exceeds the depth distance of the washer/dryer. And stiff enough so it'll stick out (again good insurance in case of a spill). Plus if any stock DOES happen to splash onto the washer/dryer control panels, it wipes off that surface really easily. So if you have a side-by-side setup, it works. If not, the yoga mat is thick enough so nothing would penetrate through it if using a kitchen counter (all precautions observed, of course).


As for other tools that seem to be working well for me, The Dollar Tree store had these remarkably handy “Sure Fresh Mini Storage” containers - 10 to a package that hold 50ml each for working containers as you go. Also great for storing leftover working stocks that are in small quantities. The square ones seem to seal best, but when they were out of those, I settled for the round ones. (Also great for stitch markers!)



I also am in love with the 30ml syringes for applying dyes for hand painting. The 60ml ones (largest shown) are too unweildly and the plunger doesn’t slide quite as easily for some reason. I find myself using the 24ml ones for best control. Also shown are 10-ml and then for fractions of dye stocks (like 2.75ml) the little 3ml. ones are perfect. These really give you some mean accuracy! These are very cheap at a farm supply store, ranging in price from $1.50 for the 60ml down to 19 cents for the little 3ml ones. I have at least 3 of all sizes so I don't have to interrupt my applications to rinse anything out.

Then I also use the back of a solid (no cut-outs) spatula I picked up at the Dollar Tree (stainless so it slips easily on fiber). This works great for patting, pushing dye into the fiber.

But that yoga mat was my "recycle of the year" -- it’s stiff enough to span across the two machines and not shift around like a plastic tablecloth does, it's thick enough so it isn't prone to developing holes anywhere, but it's totally foldable/rollable. The final thing I like about it is that it doesn't have much memory. If you fold or roll it up, it seems to unfold flat, not curling up on edges or fold lines creating uneven surfaces.

I left the photos at a larger size in case you want to click on one to get more of a closeup of those cute little storage containers. Dang, those were a great find.

Mon. Experiment

Logistics and setup/breakdown get really streamlined when you want to do maybe one of these a day and not spend much time at all. This time I was experimenting with the amount of resident acid pre-soak to leave in the fiber. I also wanted pretty deep DOS. I was prepared for mud because the amount of liquid by the time I was done syringing on my dye stocks at the intensity I wanted, GIVEN all that resident presoak already in the fiber -- well, all was fine unless you pressed on the fiber (at ALL) in which case, puddles. But having the fiber that wet sure does help in migration. There's a sweet spot balance in here somewhere. I just haven't yet found it. I have a feeling I'm heading toward moisture control right on the table as an integral part of what I'm after.

Anyway, THOUGH the turquoise doesn't come through that well in photo, this is, so far, one of my favorites because this combo has been in my head. Very simple, just a royal blue and turquoise with some color change blendings. I will do this again, except work with 2% stocks to bump up the DOS with less liquid required. Plus 2% stocks is only one more math calculation, but it sure would conserve on storage space required. I may be abandoning all those mixer/shaker containers and going to squat, short pint mason jars for stackabililty. Those mixer/shaker suckers are just too damned big.

Sunday Morning Trial

Just a quickie, took no time at all. I wanted to try just squeezing out the acid presoak water instead of the salad spinner - leave more moisture in it, maybe that would give more control over DOS. My new suspicion is that I'm being too anal about not having puddles, hence mud. I think that's on the right track. I may do a few other experiments, specifically to leave it wetter and wetter until I see where the mud point is, because I see a direct relationship between more water resident in the fiber and a certain type of more control. Anyway, here's today's.

And yes, I know, same general colors. I'm using up some diluted stocks I have leftover in small quantities. This is more about technique at this point than colorways. But why not try a little variation there too.

More Space/Handpaint Dyeing Experiments

Okay, some's good, mo's bettah. Experiments, that is.



I wanted to try doing a couple of other colorways, and in the process, keep testing out blending techniques. AND balancing DOS against liquid volume, both of which have to be balanced against the degree of wetness I leave in the fiber before even a drop of working dye stock is added. This will definitely take a lot of experimentation so there's no way I'm working with 4-oz. top lengths at this point. I'm doing 1-oz. lengths. Unfortunately for display or organized storage, those need to be serpentined in thirds AND, of course, you braid them in thirds, so my braids will not have the same appearance of variety that a different length top would give (purely by where a same color falls in the braid).

Eventually I'll have enough of these done so that four or more 1-oz. braids that are compatible can be combined to actually make something with. But at this stage, I'm not caring what might go with what. I'm just after technique.

First, a colorway that's been in my head. This is NOT it! I'm after a depth that just isn't here and my sage green? It got totally compromised and my deep turquoise washed out because that color needs way more time to exhaust than any of the others. However, there's a story behind that called "Could this have become a fire in the microwave?" I need to do this experiment again, except I'll steam it stovetop this time, and for as long as it takes. What I'm after is very different, but hey, I still haven't seen a fiber I'd kick outta bed.





That sage green just totally wiped out. It doesn't come through in the photo at all, but that's only partly camera/lighting. It wiped out.



And back to that peach/coral/watermelon/strawberry color that I gave to Jenny after my spinning group's "Dye Day" a year ago, when I first laid my eyes on a jar of acid dye powder, knowing absolutely nothing (less than now though I can happily say). I absolutely will want to make more use of that color. Here's a stab at it (parts). The yellow was only mixed at 0.3% DOS but dang, I gotta go even lighter with that one, it mounts up!







So the quest goes onward!

My first space-dyed top

Wooo-hoooo! Another first, meaning that this was intentional, not happenstance out of a mason jar.

Okay, space dyed roving can look gorgeous braided. I fear it's not as pretty in reality as it is in a braid, but undeterminable until it's spun. In any event, this was my first experiment with hand painted (a/k/a space dyed) top. I first did a 2-oz. length of this, then wanted it lighter, so I did another 1-oz. length. Yeah, it's a tad lighter but not enough to where they wouldn't just end up about the same way if all dyed together. I used the same working stock formulae, just a lesser DOS concentration. It didn't make much difference, but at least I know more now than I did when I laid out the first 2-oz. length. Including how to braid a continuous piece. Except this isn't, it's two pieces, and not the right lengths for braiding, so I had to bulldog clip ends together for the braiding, then tuck them in.

So here it is. I only used 3 colors, counting on some cross-over blending. On the 3rd try (a 1-oz. length, different colors entirely), I started getting the hang of this to the extent of discovering some tricks. It won't take long I don't think, to be able to come up with some cool things AND some cool color transition blends. (This is actually a little trickier than I thought.)

Perfect-For-Me Dye Record Keeper

Now that I'm finally getting my feet wet with actual dyeing instead of just absorbing the gestalt of it, I knew immediately that the one thing I'm going to want is a good record keeping system. In the last couple of weeks, as I've been getting a feel for various GS solids and how they behave, I've kept locks and/or bits of yarn spun from the colors and notes about them on index cards, folded in half with the fiber sample tucked in. That just wasn't going to work, so I switched to 3-ring pages in plastic page protectors with the samples stapled alongside. Well, my page covers were a pretty chintsy quality, so I hit Staples to find better ones. They had a sample book of all their page protectors and there were these amazing business card holder pages!!

ZIIIINNNG!!!

Dang, this setup gives me everything I want.


The business card holder slots are two across, five down on the page. (Formula on the left on the back of a business card with its fiber and/or yarn sample right across from it.) You can make brief notes on the business card under your formula, or you can also reference where more extensive notes are for that color.


2. Colors are easily moved elsewhere on the page, or from one page onto another. Nothing needs to be stapled in, and while the business cards and fiber samples just slip out of one slot and into another if you want, the slots are tight enough so that normal page flipping won't spit out the fiber samples.

3. While I want to see a dyed lock for tip variations, I spun a short length of yarn from each dyed fiber sample so I can see it in yarn form too. There's room for both! Squeeeee!

4. More cool stuff. The center line on the plastic page between the two columns readily folds over (but not enough to interfere with the 3-ring part). So if you want to see one color superimposed over another, you can fold over everything between two pages regardless of where they are in the book, and see the bottom color showing through, and how it goes with the top one.

Here's blue over a green page that was 2 pages back


Here's that same blue over a gold page that was several pages back


Fortunately I'd kept a stack of outdated business cards. I now wish I hadn't thrown the whole box of 500 away, but business cards just aren't hard to find.

For now I'm using three 1/2" binders - one for GS dyes only, one for all other brands, and then a third one for CMYK match tests, wild hair ideas and even dye mixing errors--the good, the bad and the ugly.

I can already tell, this dye log format is just going to work really well for the way I do things. And maybe something similar would for you too! There were other formats, I think 4x6 or 3x5... for sure, one had 2 pockets per page. Those could be good for a narrow but long strip of a multi-colored roving.



So that's my new find of the week.
:-D

First CMYK Match Experiment

I finally got around to mixing what I'm starting out with as primaries for this purpose, so I can start testing formula matching. Several other people are attempting to do this as well, but so far I haven't found anything that improves on what I worked out. Several variables have to be ironed out still, but I'm more than happy with my first test.

I picked a deep wine plum because I thought it would reveal some likely glitches. I absolutely got the same tone/hue as my target color, but I need to tweak DOS. My target was the 2nd swatch from the bottom, and my fiber is actually a perfect match for the next shade down in this family, but that is minor.

I photographed it in different lighting and from different angles since seeing any color/hue on a monitor is iffy, at best. I'm sure I'll run across color families that won't be so cooperative, however I'm very happy with this first test.