Snow Dyeing Day, Dear Diary

My apologies Ladies.

I was stranded in this storm (yesterday and today).

The photo shows our old iron bridge

 on the Medway River. 

My son drove me home and by that time it

was so late I was not able to post the 

last of the onion dye tutorial.

So here it is...

It is really a very fun and easy dyeing method

but it does have limitations....

more about those later.

Add the 'mother' onion dye and water

to your 'only for dyeing' pot.

The amounts of 'mother' and water depends

on how dark you want the wool.

The above photo shows how the strength of the 'mother'

and water will change light shades of wool.

More about this later in the post...

Heat the water to steam coming from the pot.

Do not boil the dye mixture.

Add the pennies or wool.

It is not necessary to wet the pennies/wool

when adding to the dye water.

It is not necessary to have everything 

completely under the dye water.

Keep stiring and moving around in the pot

 to make sure everything is evenly 

saturated in the dye.

 Let steam

(make sure you do not see bubbles in the pot)

for 15 or 20 minutes to

half an hour. 

Nothing is exact in onion dyeing.

Move the pennies/wool to one side 

 of the pot then add a 'glug' or two or three

of white vinegar and a

teaspoon or tablespoon of coarse salt.

What is a 'glug'? 

It's the sound when the vingear comes 

out of the jug... glug... glug... glug...

No exact measurements on vinegar or salt 

I will go into this later in the posting.

How do you know if you have added

enough vinegar and salt?

This is where the second most important 

dyeing tool is used.

The photo above shows the colour

of the dye bath before adding wool.

Vinegar and salt both 

hold the dye in the wool/cloth.

They keep it from fading and also

change the shading of the dye.

Vinegar tends to brighten colours.

Salt tends to sadden or drab colours.

I use both in all of my dyeing,
 even with my acid dyes.

After adding vinegar and salt let

the mixture simmer(pot is steaming)

for 5 or 10 minutes depending

on the strength you have used 

of the 'mother' dye.

How do you know you have used 

enough vinegar and the dye bath 

has simmered enough?

Pour the dye water from the pot 

into your clear glass cup.

The water should be either clear

or very light in colour.

The above photo shows the dye water

after the vinegar and salt were added.

My experience with onion dye is

that it will not completely clear.

If the water is still dark this 

means you try more vinegar.

Simmer for 5 minutes or more... then
check the water in the glass again.

Turn off the heat and let 

the pennies/wool sit in

the dye bath over night.

This is very important with 

natural dyeing.

Next morning remove pennies/wool

from the pot to a sink of hot water.

Add a bit of detergent if desired.

Rinse, dry and enjoy!

I have shown pastel wool pennies dyed

in the onion bath but the process

is exactly the same for pieces of 

wool, cottons, threads and

wool blend fabrics.

Last post on the onion dye tutorial

will explain how to know

the strength of your dye plus

more tips and techniques for

dyeing wool used to create

penny rugs.

I hope to have it posted tomorrow

but weekends are very busy

for me so please

check back often as

my 'subscribe' by email from

mail chimp doesn't seem to 

be working yet again!

I could really start hating blogger!

Until next time...

Stay safe and warm...

cee

Lesson One Onion Dyeing Dear Diary,

Pastel shade of wool are sometimes difficult 

to work into a primitive penny rug.

Sometimes it is difficult to find just the 

right shade of recycled wool.

Don't pass on those pastel shades Ladies.

Difficult to believe you started with pale 

pinks, mauves and orange pennies.

This is a sample of the pale pennies in a full

strength 'mother' dye bath.

Onion dye is also wonderful to 

dye cottons and threads.

It gives a nice 'old' look to those cottons.

The 'mother' onion dye is the water straight from the

dye pot with the onion skins.

Half water and half of the 'mother' dye gives you

more shades from the same pastel wool.

Those same pastel pennies go in a dye bath of

two parts water to one part 'mother' dye and 

four parts water to one part 

'mother' onion dye,

Four shade of pennies from the 

same pastel penny circles.

I have shown only a few shade of pastels

but what would happen if you 

included darker shades..plaids..

very ugly reds and blues and greens.

Beautiful multi antique and 

primitive shade of pennies with only

a few onion skins and some ugly wool.

Next lesson I will show how to 

make the 'mother' batch of dye.

Pots and everything you need to 

start dyeing wool the very easy,

very simple and primitve way.

Ladies save those onion skins and 

get out your really ugly wool!

Until tomorrow..

cee