What do do on a misty Saturday??? Dye of course!

Wow I think we almost went a whole week without a freeze.

The weather is finally warming up enough to think about getting the dye baths going again! Yeah!!

Between the two of us we dyed 27 scarves…a new record! In case you’re curious about how we get such great looking scarves just keep reading!

When we do a Shibori style  of scarf it requires lots of stitching or tying.  So we are actually working on the scarves well before we actually start to add color.



Mine are tied with dental floss and heavy thread



Cordula favors polyester twine and heavy thread



After we get all the scarves together , we then toss them into  a bucket with Soda  Ash water so they can soak through.

While these soak it's time to get the dyes mixed up. We use Fiber Reactive Procion Dye so we dont' have to mess around with steaming the fabic.

They look pretty harmless however everyone I've talked to who dye's all warn to make sure you used a mask (see in the picture) when you mix and to make a mixing box. (see below)

The sides keep a draft from blowing the dry dye around and I dampen down the newspapers at the bottom so it will catch any dye powder that may sift out.

It's pretty amazing how just a smattering of blue can corrupt a yellow!

I've also written in the measurements of how dye to how much chem water to make a batch, beats having to refer to the book all the time.

and look how pretty the dyes are!

I'm not to crazy about the Sun Yellow we mixed up, the colors keep seperating. As we used it we mixed it with some soda ask water and that seemed to help somewhat. I used old chem water so maybe that had something to do with it.

After the soaking we were then ready to start adding color....and did we!!!



Cordula adding color



Don't the colors look wonderful as they soak into the Silk!

After about an hour we finally got the last of the scarves in some kind of color. Then just when we thought we had time to take a break, the first scarf we colored was ready to be rinsed...so on to the rinsing!



And Rinsed

Rinsing is like the everlasting story...it just never ends

after all the rinsing, we can finally toss them into the washer and take lunch!! Yeahhhhhh Jersey Mikes here we come!

But don't they all look so pretty in the sink!

After washing we then have the finger tortuous task of pulling out all the string, rubber bands and twine...one problem with making an elaborate tie, it takes FOREVER to get it out when wet!!!!

However I have to say the results are worth it, below are a few.