Dear Friends, When I studied Shibori at Parsons, our instructor had us measure our powdered dyes with a gram scale and liquid elements with chemists measures. It was all very precise and phramaceutical. She had been a dyer in Japan,and what motivated her to come to the US was, that in Japan, the women were only permitted to mix the dyes for the men Master Dyers. Recently our Guild President held a Dye Day at her home, her approach is much more relaxed, we measured with mroe familiar tools, kitchen teaspoons and measuring cups. Most of the membership wanted ot paint wartps, my mission was different- I had POUNDS of strange melon colored 10/2 cotton that was an impulse buy on eBay (Online Auction Fail?) that I wanted to transform into dark dark chocolate brown. I made a few mistakes along the way. I wound a thick bulky skein of yarn when it would have been more manageable to wind several smaller thinner skeins. I did tie them loosely enough, which was good, but I was a little cheap with the dye- so there were areas in the skein when the dye did not soak the yarn completely. The result is that the color appears faded in some areas- I think when it is woven the effect will be like a faded space dye. After the dyeing rinsing and drying, which was much more laborious because of the single fat skein, the final color was too light, note yarn color compared to Dark Chocolate actual sample. It would have been better for me to wind off a few yards and do a test dye to check the color saturation. At work we have a dye room so that the assistants can dye linings when necessary- they use a blow dryer to dry dye sample swatches. Weaving Guru told me that you can only dye a fiber so many times before it refuses to accept more dye- so that is a reason to try to get it right the first time. I had a big tangled mess when winding the finished yarn, too, as one of my ties for the skein came undone. The ball winding took hours and hours. Thank goodness there was chocolate available!
