Saturday is Dye Day

I have signed up for Rebecca Metzoff's on line tapestry class which starts on Monday.  She recommends using Harrisville Highland for weft.  Unfortunately The Mannings did not have a wide selection of colors in the skein and I did not want to buy several cones.  I bought two cones of white and purchased a Greener Shades organic dye starter kit at MDSW.

First step was to wind off 50 yard skeins.

Next, I washed the nine small skeins in Synthrapol.

Drying in the sun.

Because I wanted to do nine small skeins I used mason jars set in the dye pot.

The Greener Shades dye instruction sheet was very clear and concise.  For the majority of the colors I used only 1/8 teaspoon of dye.  For the reds, black and orange I used 1/4 teaspoon.  I used bamboo skewers to stir the dye and wool gently.  After the temperature of the water inside the jar reached 175, I added 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid to each jar.  I let the temperature get close to 200degrees and then turned off the heat and let the jars cool.

The yarn was dumped out of the jar into a strainer and the washed in Soak.

Drying in the sun.