One snowy Nh night, years ago, my pal Marcia invited me to learn how to hook rugs. I was a seasoned crafter as well as explained to her in which, with three small children, I wanted a undertaking that could be completed rapidly. So she demonstrated how to make a penny carpet. For those who are new to wool crafting, penny area rugs are comprised of bits of wool that are appliqud, with all the blanket stitch, on to a base piece of made of woll, or other fabric. Generations ago, women used scraps from their wool rug hooking efforts, and cut the scraps into circles, using a penny being a template. The circles were arranged within pretty designs, sewn onto the base cloth, and turned into arrangements for the house -- table runners, doilies, coverlets, etc. These days, penny rug designs may be much more complex, as crafters take the fine art to new areas. The craft is gaining popularity, because it is easy to create something quite and useful at the same time. And a simple project could be completed in a night or two.
So my buddy supplied me with wool from the girl stash to get started. From the moment she brought out The particular Wool, I cherished the craft. I made my own design for that first dime rug and delivered my own style to the project, using a style from Genesis of the serpent in a tree inside the Garden of Eden, along with thorns embroidered around the ends, growing in towards the "garden" in the middle. The only factors in the design that may be considered "pennies" were the particular round fruits on the tree. I caused it to be symbolic, telling an account in the Bible that was meaningful to me, which first project got my attention, so that I could hardly wait to do more.
Whenever it came time to shop for more made of wool, I quickly realized that, because frugal as I was, I would have a hard time providing all the colors that we wanted for potential projects. So I going to learn to dye my very own wool. I have never been one to take the outdone path or do anything whatsoever small-scale, so I was not willing to rush to the store and buy every one of the pre-formulated colors and just start dyeing. I needed someplace to begin, and a way to test a large variety of colors from which I could choose my personal favorites. So I rifled through old issues of 'Threads' magazine to see if there might be helpful information there. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon what ended up being a life-changing article simply by Linda Knutson about dyeing using only these primaries, dissolved in water to a 1% dilution. I loved this idea. It would maintain the mechanics simple and the particular buying of supplies low, so that I could try things out to my carried away heart's content. The article furthermore outlined a systematic method of trialing colors, using progressive percentage-based formulas. Brilliant! A method to address my dependence on organization, while permitting me to be imaginative.
KEEPING Colour CHOICES SIMPLE The 1st decision I created at the outset was to just use white wool. Ever since then, I have had to articles myself with making use of natural, because white-colored is not always available, and that i want to be as constant as possible, since I also sell wool. (Utilizing natural wool will add a tiny bit of warmth to the shades, but not enough to worry about.) Before I started dyeing, My partner and i saw many formulations using a base wool of taupe, or khaki, and so on., but I concluded that I might have every colour of the rainbow at some point anyway, so to use one base color might keep everything steady. I further standardised by creating formulas using only the three primaries. I work in color households or 'tiers' of shade, from very vivid to primitive, and i also determine where a shade belongs by how much of the third primary it has. If I were utilizing mixtures of pre-formulated shades, this kind of organization will be impossible. My approach also allows me personally to see gaps between formulas, ensuring that I have a continuous selection throughout the color wheel inside each tier.
Additionally it is easier to find colors which can be in between colors My partner and i already have. For instance, if I am studying two doldrums and I want to discover the color in between, splitting the difference in the formulation will nearly always create the color I want, so long as I start with two colors that are relatively similar. Sometimes it requires two stabs to get the formula right, but that is typically all it takes. By indicating all formulas in the same simple terms (3 colors, in proportions), we reduce a mystery formula to a numerical equation, rather than an educated guess.
GOING Statistic Like most of us, I will be accustomed to using English measurements, and when I really do anything else I nevertheless use cups, back yards, pounds, teaspoons and all the others
rugsdirect.com. But when I started dyeing wool, I felt a great need to eliminate as numerous variables as I could. So I took a huge breath and turned my mindset, the location where the Wool is concerned, to presenting metric measurement for everything, despite these reluctance to do this anywhere else in my life. I'm so glad I did so. Honestly, using the measurement system makes the mathematics easy to manage when you are accustomed to it, and not beyond the average person with basic math skills.
The great beauty of the particular metric system is in which 1 ml associated with water weighs A single gram, so water measure and dried out measure can be treated as equal for wool-dyeing purposes. This principle is totally key to everything a single does when using this method. You can relate the actual gram weight of dye powder just as to the ml way of measuring of water when making dyestock, and you can relate the gram weight from the wool equally to the amount of ml in the dyestock, when choosing a value for a color.
For instance, We mix 1 gram of dye with 99 ml of water, creating A hundred ml of a '1% remedy dyestock'. Because 1 ml of water weighs 1 gram, this kind of 1/99 ratio of color to water is mathematically accurate and easy in order to quantify. I help make 1% dyestock for each primary, and also store it all in milk jugs. Thus remember:
1 gram dye powder 99 ml water Equals a 1% dyestock solution
Making use of PERCENTAGE-BASED FORMULAS Now I'm will make you think a little tougher. You'd better go get yourself a cup of coffee!
In addition to implementing the metric method, I continued standardizing my personal methods by rendering all formulas in percentages, rather than tsp fractions. This creates a 'universal' formula that will function, regardless of the size item being dyed. As an example, if I am using a method that is 90% red and 10% yellow, that proportion will remain constant for any piece I dye. Since every formula, no matter who can make it, is ultimately any mathematical equation, be it rendered in proportions or 1/16 teaspoons - employed in percentages broadens your ability to apply that formulation in any circumstance.
I also use percentage dimension to determine how much dyestock to use to produce the value I want. It is generally known that 1% dye to the weight of the made of woll will produce a medium value for most colours, and it is also well-known which doubling the amount of dye on the wool together with each value creates a gradation that takes the color from light to dark in 6-8 jumps (this can be, in effect, what the 'jar method' achieves). So one great option for producing 6 values, (working to the outside from the medium value at 1%) is to use: .125%, .25%, .5%, 1%, 2%, and 4% (although 3% produces a colour nearly as darkish, with less color). Some time spent trialing beliefs will give you a progression that you like, and this development will work for most shade formulas that you use, besides, perhaps, formulas which can be mostly yellow -- a slightly more soaked progression is needed there.
Once I know what method I want to use, as well as what value I wish to make it, the only leftover question is how much of the overall formula to mix up, and I determine this simply by weighing the made of woll to be dyed, and doing some basic calculations. Follow me through a sample calculation, and see if you can make sense than it:
Let's say I have A hundred grams of wool (about yard), and that i want to dye that to a medium worth in a 90% red / 10% yellow formula. Given that a 1% ratio associated with dye-to-wool produces a medium benefit, and I already work with a 1% dyestock solution, equal elements of dyestock and wool may, therefore, produce the actual medium value which i want, since 100 ml of 1% dyestock will certainly deposit 1% dye onto the wool. Once I understand that I need 100 ml of dyestock, I grow that amount instances the percentages inside the formula. So I will certainly mix 90 milliliter red and Ten ml yellow with this example.
Here is another illustration, for dyeing 300g wool with a dark value at a 3% dye factor, utilizing a formula containing 70% reddish / 10% yellow Or 20% blue:
300g (wool) Times 3 (dye factor) = 900 ml dyestock
70% X 900 Equals 630ml red 10% X 900 = 90ml yellow 20% By 900 = 180ml blue
(Notice that we don't increase the weight of the made of wool by 3 percent, however by 3. This is because the percentage symbol communicates the amount of dye powder as a percentage of the particular dyestock that we need to get the value we want, but in the equation we are figuring out the amount of dyestock itself to use, which is exactly 100 times the amount of dye itself. Using % in the equation might divide the final solution by 100, which will be incorrect. Thus dropping the percent sign and using the amount alone is simply a quick way to getting the correct solution.)
Have you heard the adage, "Give a man a bass and you feed your pet for a day. Teach a man to seafood and you feed your pet for a lifetime" This is, basically, what I am performing. Rather than saying, "here is really a formula that will coloring 1 yard of wool", I am showing you how to assemble boiler-plate formulas as well as equations that will take you wherever you want to go when dyeing, and with relative relieve once you are used to this. Don't let the math frighten you - it's all stuff we realized in the fifth quality, and you ARE smarter than a fifth grader!
I could enter into more detail here (in fact there will be a book on this sometime in the near future) but for now I am merely giving you the gist from the method. I will supply more help in future articles, so stay tuned in!
THE BENEFITS OF USING Water DYESTOCK Liquid dyestock is, undoubtedly, the most convenient way to dye wool. Even if you use pre-formulated colors, sustaining dyestock in the colors you utilize most will speed up your dyeing -- you can walk into the kitchen and dye a few pieces easily. One of the great benefits of this method is that you need only produce dyestock occasionally, if you produce a fair quantity. For instance, A single,000 ml regarding dyestock will dye 1,000 grams (a couple of 1/2 yards) of made of wool to a medium benefit, so if you produce Several,000 ml of each and every primary, (nearly a gallon) this will have you through a fairly huge project, or a number of smaller ones, even though you dye all your own wool. Once made, your dyestock will keep for a long period. Dyestock will, theoretically, last indefinitely, given the high quality and sterility of the h2o you use, but for practical purposes, ProChem says it'll last a minimum of Six months. If you dye on a regular basis, there is not much danger of wasting a lot of dyestock.
Using liquid dyestock will give you the kind of control necessary to dye small items with accuracy. Using a 1-ml syringe (the type used to deliver insulin) makes this possible. When using several colours to produce a formula, small nuances in strengthen can be made. For instance, whites are very, very difficult in order to formulate with accuracy and reliability, because tiny changes in the red and blue of a yellow formula produce spectacular results. Working in declines, however, these great changes are quite possible, in fact there is a expected mathematical progression of formulations in yellow that produces everything from near-green to near-orange, and each nuance in between.
Contrary to what you are able think initially, I've found this method to be a clean way to dye, particularly when the dye powdered (nasty, messy things, in my opinion) spends most of the time in the cupboard. I use various-sized syringes and little graduated pitchers to furnish dyestock. Because the dyestock that I use is dilute, spills hardly ever cause a stain easily wipe them swiftly, even on my oiled leather oak floors and also birch countertops. I use screw-top covers to store dyestock, and keep the actual lids screwed on when not in use, and I serve larger amounts of dyestock on the sink to avoid huge accidents.
A FEW CAVEATS Using the three primaries does have it's limitations, but they are handful of. I have formulated many browns and greens using the three primaries, nevertheless, these colors will be more difficult to produce. A lot of stirring is required, and also the use of Glauber's salt necessary to produce any kind of even result. Even then, your results may vary coming from batch-to-batch. If you are more picky about your outcomes, you may prefer to utilize pre-formulated browns and shades of black, and add a small of the primaries to adjust them.
I use ProChem dyes, and possess yet to experiment with some other brands, although I can guess that even if the general results vary from ProChem chemical dyes, those brands might still behave naturally, using the same methods.
I hope this inspires you to try this method, which has worked so well for me. This is actually the first in a group of articles on the subject, and in future articles I am going to provide more detail about the methods I use, including equipment (together with resources), working in proportions, setting up mathematical progressions regarding color formulas, how to trial color trials, and the care and also feeding of your dyestock.
To determine the results of my own many color tests, and the four sections of color that I work in, (all colors created using the three primaries), kindly visit me:
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