Saturday, May 26, 2007

Yarn to dye for

I have seached the internet to find danish stores that sell acid dyes. Found 3: Lanasyn, Remazol and Irgalan. They all have to be mixed with vinegar + other "stuff".

I have borrowed a pile of books about dying. One of them is particularly good: Yarn to dye for by Kathleen Taylor. She uses Gaywool dyes which can be ordered here. Again you have to add vinegar and urea.

I have been to several indian/asian shops to bye food colouring powder -never managed to find blue.

I have been to several hobby stores, paint stores etc looking for acid dyes -they all looked pretty puzzled when I asked about it! The only thing I got was a headache (and a pair of sandals but that a different story).

But why in the world didn't I just do the most obvious thing. My Secret Pal has explained how she dyes, she has send me yarn with colours I like. DOH!

I have now ordered the same dye as she uses. Omega dyes -all in one acid dyes. 7 different colours. Postage was only 4 GBP the colours just 20 GBP. That is SO much cheeper than the dyes I could get from danish dealers.


Turquoise (25g)
Malachite (25g)
Marine Blue (25g)
Mahogany (10g)
Mail Red (25g)
Naval Blue (25g)
Moss (25g)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go! I've used Omega dyes for a while and think they're the best! ... will write more about dyeing later on ... working at the moment as I had a disaster or two last week and am hoping to dye later or tomorrow. Hope the dyes arrive soon ... happy weekend, your SP

Anonymous said...

Forgot to mention ... to get a good colour with the turquoise you'll need to soak (prior to dyeing) and wash (after dyeing) with soap (the solid kind) rather than washing up liquid otherwise it turns out pastel!

Anonymous said...

oh and in case you're interested the lochs and glens colours were naval blue, marine blue, turquoise, malachite and moss.

LUL said...

Does that mean you in general get stronger and more vivid colours if you use soap (do you mean hand soap?) instead of washing up liquid? What happens if you use soap for wool?
Thanks for warning me -I wouldn't like it if the colours turned out pastel.
Got my nose into the lochs and glens yarn trying to tell which colour is which ;-)