Tuesday, 8 March 2011

From the field to the needle continued - dyeing

OK, are you ready for this, we’ve got 10 minutes before I need to go back downstairs and turn the hob off. This post is huge so take a deep breath right now and make sure you’re sitting comfortably – you might even have grown a beard by the time you get to the end!

First up… get the pan on the stove

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Then, gather together the ingredients

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Not forgetting the actual fleece

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I’m going to dye 200g, so onto the scales it goes

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Next the fleece needs to soak in water

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probably for longer than I leave it in there.

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and, of course, being wool, it doesn’t want to go into the water, so a bit of gentle encouragement is called for

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(sexy hand, or what?)

Back to the ingredients. First read the destructions (and then ignore then, usually)

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and weigh out the dye – 4g for 200g fleece

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and 12g of fixing agent (ammonium sulphate – I think, I’ll have to check when I go back downstairs in a sec))

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Pop the fixing agent in the water and then dilute the dye with hot water

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Add fibre protection – 4ml for 200g fibre

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And finally, chuck in the squeezed out, but still damp, fleece

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make sure it all gets under the water

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and cook for 30 minutes

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I don’t know whether you can see in that last picture, but the fleece is already turning different shades of turquoise – the lens kept steaming up, though.

Right, my 30 minutes are up, so I’ll pop downstairs and turn the heat off.

Then, after CSI, I will rinse the fibre, so I’ll see you after 10pm.

Thanks for having the stamina to get this far.

Liz
x

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