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Last night I dyed some 20/2 tencel with what I thought was going to be cobalt blue. I did not get cobalt blue. I'm not sure if it's just me but, I can't seem to get bold vibrant colors with fiber reactive dyes. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.....if anyone knows of some tips, I would really love to hear them. I soaked the yarn, mixed the salt and dye in a solution, added it to the yarn, let it sit for about 30 minutes or so stirring occasionally, then added the dissolved soda ash. Usually I would have called it a day after about an hour but, I let it set like that overnight. The water wasn't clear in the morning although I could see that some of it had been drawn into the fiber. I'm not sure if it's like the heat set dyes I'm so used to with wool......I think I would just really really really like to dye all of my own yarn......all in due time, I guess. Well, either way....the color works for me and I'm planning on running a filament along with it in the weft. I bought four different 'sparkles' to play with.
To answer bspinner's question about my sett for 20/2 - I'm going to go with 30 epi.....I hope hope hope this works out and is 'just right'. This is my first time using the 20/2 and based on the information I could find, it looks like 30 epi is going to be what I'm looking for:) Well, I'm off to counting those ends:)
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Lynnette said…
Hi Shannon,
I've just been doing some Procion MX dyeing and I do it a bit differently. I wet my yarn, squeeze it dry then put it in a soda ash/water solution for about 30 minutes to open up the fiber to take the dye. Wring it out, then add it to the dye/salt/urea/water for about 10 minutes or longer depending on how deep I want the colour to be. Hope this helps.
March 6, 2009 at 9:23 PM
Kimberly said…
When you soak the yarn, soak it in a soda ash/water solution instead of adding soda ash later.
March 6, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Sherri Woodard Coffey said…
I'll admit that I don't use fiber reactive dyes much, but with acid dyes I sometimes use a 3 or 4 percent solution to get really intense colors.
March 7, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Peg in South Carolina said…
Fiber reactive dyes never exhaust. One reason, in fact, that I dislike them so much is the insane amount of rinsing that has to be done to get out all the unfixed dye! I have dyed cotton but never tencel so tencel could be a different beast. My only suggestion might be to soak the yarn overnight. If it is anything like silk, it does not absorb water readily and needs a long long soak before dyeing it. I do have a question: what was the depth of shade you used? It could be (but I don't know), that you have to use more dye that you would have to with cotton. I would try dying it again and see if you get the intensity you want.
March 7, 2009 at 7:26 PM
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