Gradation Dyeing

Now that it is spring, (and nearly summer), it is warm enough to dye ! I like to batch my Procion-dyed cellulosic fibers outside, when it is over 75 degrees out, and yesterday was set to hit 86. Which, for the beginning of May, is strange. Everything in the garden grew 6 inches yesterday!

I have been possessed by gradient yarns, and the idea of smooth color progressions on linen yarn. I wanted to try my hand at making my own, so I dug out my old knitting machine and tried to knit a blank on it. That was an exercise in frustration, as my machine was not cooperative, and I despaired of achieving my aim.

Over the winter I had designed and  knitted two lace vests in some white alpaca/wool yarn, and dye-painted them with acid dyes, which was very fun and satisfying, so I wanted to try the same process with my favorite Euroflax linen yarns. I managed to knit one vest, and then did some research and found this lovely gizmo: NKOK Singer knitting machine

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NJ0UIYQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is marketed as a toy, and it is a wild pink plastic, but does work surprisingly well for its cost, which was an amazing $23. As I intended to use it for knitting dye-able lengths only, it was a bargain, and certainly a useful item. It worked pretty well, after I found some clamps to attach it to the table and got the hang of the tension and speed of rotating the little crank. My arms got very tired! And I had to untwist the resulting tube many times, but after 2 hours, I had a useable length of knitted yarn. After knitting up two skeins of linen into 6 ft snakes of yarn, I was ready to mix up the dyes.

I wanted a progression from green to turquoise to blue, with smooth color transitions, and being a more casual and not so scientific dyer, I was not sure which of the 5 blues I should use. I have a lot of Procion MX dye powder which I have used over the years to dye cotton fabric, and loved the color I saw at the Prochem booth at MQX show, which was Intense Blue 406, but I also had Bright Blue 404. I figured I could use all four colors and see how they turned out, so I made up 3 cups water to 6 Tsp urea, and made concentrate as follows:

1 tsp Brightest Green 711 in ½ cup Urea water

3 tsp Turquoise 410 in 1 cup ureawater

2 tsp 406 Intense blue in a cup of ureawater

1 tsp 404 Bright blue in ½ cup ureawater

Then I divided my dye into 13 plastic cups which I numbered.

So #1 was all green,

2: 7 Tbsp green and 2 tbsp turquoise

3: 5 Tbsp green, 5 Tbsp turquoise

4: 2 Tbsp green , 7 Tbsp turquoise

5: Turquoise

6:  7 Tbsp Turquoise, 2 Tbsp 406

7: 5 Tbsp turquoise, 5 Tbsp 406

8: 2 Tbsp Turquoise, 7 Tbsp 406

9: all 406 Intense blue

10: 7 Tbsp 406 and 2 Tbsp 404

11: 5 Tbsp 406, 5 Tbsp 404

12: 2 Tbsp 406 and 7 Tbsp 404

13: all 404

Meanwhile, the yarn and vest ( and some PFD cotton I had in my stash) were soaking in Soda ash and water  ( ½ cup soda ash to ½ gallon water).

Once I was ready, I squeezed out the soda ash solution, and laid out the vest on top of the fabric, and , using a sponge to apply the dye, with gloved hands, began applying the dye in numerical order, onto the vest. One of the “scarves”( 500 yards of Fibra natura laceweight linen)  I divided into 12 equal sections with locking markers, and dyed that one  last, skipping the green so I went directly to jar #2. The other “scarf” was one skein of Euroflax, and I did a more spontaneous progression. Leftover dye was poured on some remaining white cotton I had in my stash.

Using a sponge was great, as I had more control over the placement of the color, and could dab it on, blending the colors as I went.
I dyed everything in plastic bins so I could let it “batch” for 24 hours and remain wet and undisturbed. No one wants cats with blue paws!

Tomorrow: washout and dry!! It is so hard to wait!!