My wool dyeing project (picture heavy )

15 years ago

I took these pictures for my cousin, but thought some at the KT might find the process interesting. I doubt this will be very useful to many of you, but anyone who likes surprises would enjoy it!

I hope you can open this thread.......I've been having problems reading posts on the KT today.

Anyway, here's the deal. I use all recycled wool (old 100% wool clothes, cut up) for my rug hooking. Sometimes I use the colors as is, and sometimes I've overdyed with dye manufactured for this purpose. And sometimes I do what I did this past weekend: put some woolens together to let them dye each other. No additional dye is used with this method.

Multicolor wool, such as plaids and checks, are very desirable in rug hooking. Back in the early days of the craft, the most valuable find ever was a paisley piano shawl. You can just imagine how many of those we have floating around the thrift shops today. So the solution is to create our own multicolored patterns. One way to do this is with "marbleizing."

I started with three pieces of wool: two dark (brown and teal) and one light (tan).

I sandwiched the light between the darks and rolled them up like a jelly roll from the long edge. I then secured the roll with rubber bands.

I filled an enamel pot 2/3 full of water, and added 1 tbsp. borax. This was waiting at a slow simmer for my wool, and I added it to the pot.

I kept it barely simmering for 30 minutes, using tongs to make sure the whole roll was immersed in the water. The water turned dark with dye.

After 30 minutes, I added 1/2 cup of white vinegar to set the dye and simmered 30 minutes more. At this point the water is supposed to turn clear, but mine never does. (I hope this doesn't mean I'm giving you faulty directions. LOL)

I removed the pot from heat and added cold water gradually. Too abrupt a change from hot to cold can result in the wool becoming felted, and unsuitable for hooking. When the roll of wool was cool enough to handle, I cut the rubber bands and opened it up. Voila!

The dark brown showed very little change, but the teal

and the tan

were intriguing and will hook up beautifully.

Later in the day I did a batch with navy blue, white, and a boring maroon. Once again, one of the pieces (the navy) changed very little. But the maroon

and the white

were just what I wanted!

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Comments (14)

angela_nor_calif
15 years ago
That is very cool. I love how the maroon turned out especially.
nodakgal
15 years ago
How beautiful!!
Never realized this was possible. I know colors "bleed" in the wash and dry cleaning but its always happened to me when I didn't want it to! LOL
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Zipper_TX
15 years ago
Ooh, very pretty... do you see the face in the top two pictures? :)
alisande
Original Author
15 years ago
do you see the face in the top two pictures?

Yes, I do! The first one looks like Dick Tracy, and the second one reminds me of Arafat. LOL
OklaMoni
15 years ago
I never done any of that either, and am awed.

Nice job.

Moni
User
15 years ago
Cool, what are you going to do with it now?
alisande
Original Author
15 years ago
My current project is a chair set. I'm using the tan (second picture of marbleized wool) to hook the background around a light brown horse. In fact, this morning I did a second batch of those same brown/tan/teal colors so I don't run out of the background wool before I'm finished. I haven't decided about the others yet.

Thanks, all!
kacram
15 years ago
that is really very cool. such beautiful patterns and
color. Love it!
foggyj
15 years ago
You are one crafty, interesting, person! Can't wait to see the end result.
marie_ndcal
15 years ago
Thank you for posting. That is very interesting. Because you use rubber bands to hold the roll is that why the stripes are there? Wonder if you used fish lines, but then the stripes do add another dimension to the fabric. bet your house smells good> (just kidding you)
jae_tn2
15 years ago
beautiful!
alisande
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes, the stripes are caused by the rubber bands--and they're desirable, as they add to the multicolor effect. Some people get a similar result with string.

My house smells slightly vinegary--but it's not nearly as strong as when I boiled vinegar and water in the microwave the other day. :-)

Thanks, everyone! Here's the work in progress. I'm outlining the horse in the post-dyed teal, and am using the post-dyed tan for the background. I'm not sure if the teal outline is a good idea or not, but it's a done deal. I'm not ripping it out!

Closeup of the background hooking:
susanjf_gw
15 years ago
awesome! we really have a lot of talented people here!
lynn_d
15 years ago
How very cool! I had to read that thru a couple of times before I realized what you were doing, Susan, or rather 'not' doing....you didn't use any dye. DUH!! I'm slow! LOL!!!

But I am very impressed. We go to the historical society's craft days, they do everything in the manner used during the revolutionary war, it is fascinating. One of the vendor demonstrators makes her own felt from start to finish, she explained about the rapid cooling that she does. She had some beautiful things.

My wool dyeing project (picture heavy )

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My wool dyeing project (picture heavy )

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