Low Immersion Dye Experiment 3

This looks like it should be a cheesecake or some other yummy dessert.  It is actually the moment after I added the dye to my low immersion experiment 3.  The fibre, 150 g of a merino/cashmere blend, was soaked in 3 litres of warm water and 125 mls of household white vinegar ( the stuff you buy at the grocery store.)     The pan is sitting on the stove, over 2 burners.

I did the math for dye amounts  ( WOF x DOS / % Dye stock )    I came up with 75 mls of dye.  I decided to use no more than that for this experiment.     I measured the dye with a syringe and drizzled it over the wet fibre.   I turned the burners on to low at this time, so that the water would start heating.

Exhausted acid dye bath is clear!

I have a chop stick that I use to gently lift the fibres to make sure the colour is penetrating.  I had to use it a bit as the fibre was quite well packed in places.  As well, most of this is not quite pencil roving, but quite thin anyway, so twisted in places and not easy for dye penetration.  I did a bit of moving and untangling the roving in a couple of places, just to make sure I didn't get white spots.     I kept the dye bath at a simmer, until the water exhausted and kept it there for a bit longer just to make sure the dyed fibre had the best chance at being colourfast.

I'd watched a couple of you tube videos about this technique and there were a number of them which showed brightly coloured water, with the commentary " Look, the dye has exhausted and we can remove it now".   This is what an exhausted acid dye bath looks like.  The water should be clear and not coloured!  If you use too much dye, the water won't exhaust and it is a waste of  dye.

It is important to let the fibres cool slowly, to avoid felting from temperature shock.  I let it cool in the pot.  The nice thing about a rectangular pan with little water, is that the whole lot cools down in only a couple of hours.  After a quick rinse to make sure there was no residual dye, and a spin in a dye dedicated salad spinner, I laid the fibre outside on a drying rack, covered with screening.  With the breezy days we've been having, it dried in no time.