Since I dye with the soda ash in the dye, I often have a little dye left over - I don't want to waste it, so I keep a piece of cloth scrunched up in a pan and when my dyeing session is over, I squirt the dye around on the cloth in the pan and forget about it.
This piece is two and a half yards of 60 inch linen; it has been hanging out in the pan for about 4 or 5 months now. I have never kept it warm and it's really cold in my studio in the winter. I never put extra soda ash on it and it always dried out between dyeing bouts.

I finally washed it out - not bad........
k. taltre