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

Then, gather together the ingredients

Not forgetting the actual fleece

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

Next the fleece needs to soak in water

probably for longer than I leave it in there.

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

(sexy hand, or what?)

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

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

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

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

Add fibre protection – 4ml for 200g fibre

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

make sure it all gets under the water

and cook for 30 minutes

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
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