Dyeing Roving With Food Coloring

         

Wool roving.

  Learning about dyeing wool is like entering an entire world of knowledge. There are so many ways to dye wool! Some of these ways date back thousands of years. This is truly an ancient craft, connecting us, today, to the generations of before.
         Natural dyes can be obtained using bits and pieces from the slop bucket. Onion skins and avocado pits and walnut hulls, can all be used to dye wool. The part that makes things a bit complicated is the "mordant". This is the substance that "fixes", or makes permanent, the dye in the wool. Natural dyes rely on different mordants and it takes time to keep which mordant goes with which dye....on top of saving back the different dye components.

Dyes   

      So when I started, I chose the simplest and most readily available dye I could get my hands on. Food coloring!! The mordant is simply vinegar. I have also used Jacquard Acid Dyes, using the same basic instructions, with wonderful success. The end result of Jacquard dyes seems to be colors I can not achieve with food coloring.

Ready, Set, Go!

        The basic steps for dyeing wool are: wetting the wool, adding dye and mordant, and finally heating to set the color.
         I start by soaking the wool for 20 minutes to an hour. Some say that this allows the wool to take up the dye easier.

         Then I get my dyes out.

 For basic, one color dyeing, I might pre-blend dyes until I reach the desired color. For more elaborate dyeing, I will prepare the various dyes in cups.

         I heat my wool on the stove. Some use their oven or microwave. I will put in three parts water to one part white vinegar. Then I add the dyes and heat to a slow simmer.

      Notice the water around the wool is transparent. This water is exhausted of dye and therefore done! I generally simmer wool for about 45 minutes to achieve this. In this particular session, I am trying to achieve a 3 color strip of roving. After dyeing the bottom orange, I dyed the middle yellow!

Then I dyed the last part at the top, red! To get out the extra dye when I am done, I rinse and then soak the wool in a bowl of very hot water and dish soap or laundry detergent.

      This helps get the extra dye out.

 Be aware that most dyes available to home dyers are not color fast in very hot water. Lanaset dyes are the ones I have found to be the most colorfast in very hot water. 

      Here is the final product!

     
    Looking forward to felting some critters with it!
    Check out how to wash a fleece right off the sheep, here.