Dye Pot

Yesterday's experiment was supposed to be a very subtle gradation. If it had worked the way I thought it would I would have ended up with 24 shades of blue. Well, to my eye it looks like I've got six.

I started with three balls of Pattons Lacette. From there I wound them into little golf ball sized units. The idea was to dip 1 in the dye bath, then replace the missing dye with water. Thus the dye would slowly become less concentrated resulting in many shades.

And, perhaps with a lighter hand on the dye (1 tbs procion fiber reactive dye sapphire blue in two cups of vinegar) or with a 100% wool yarn I would have gotten a more varied response. As it was I hit the maximum saturation of dye for my yarn long before I got it diluted enough to make a difference in the final shade.

But I did learn two things: Pattons Lacette, which is a nylon/acrylic/wool mix does dye and takes very dark colors nicely. It's been discontinued so it's a bit hard to find, but the places that seem to have it also seem to have it in the bargain bin. So if you don't like the color, grab it anyway and play with it.

Secondly, next time I want to try a gradation along those lines I'm going to start with all my balls in a vinegar bath, and then add a little dye at a time. I may not get as subtle of a variation, but I can guarantee that I'll have shades from light to dark.