cotton yarn?

[dianaj]

Hi all,

Has anyone ever dyed cotton yarn?  I have a friend who is an avid weaver and she wants to come and play with my procion dyes.

I'm assuming a dye bath would be best but I'm a beginner and any imput is much appreciated.

Thanks!

Diana

[fiberartist219]

Yes, I have dyed oodles of cotton yarn.

The hardest part about dyeing yarn is keeping it from getting tangled.

If she is a weaver, she might have experience with a weaver's cross. Tell her to show you what that is, and how to tie it up.

Also, after you've wound up a loop, put ties around it every few inches. Make sure that the ties you have are loose and made of a contrasting thread. For example, when dyeing cotton yarn, I use a dark synthetic thread to make the ties. That way, when you pull it out of the dye and rinse it, you can easily find which strings to cut and which strings are really your yarn.

You can dye it either by squirting dyes on soda soaked yarn, or you can put them in a bucket and dye them like that. Either way is fine. After they are secured in a way that prevents tangling, you can dye them however you want.

Also, if you get bored, google "ikat" dyeing. It's pretty fun.

[pburch]

I have some cotton yard to dye that my mother sent me, but next time I'm going to get her to machine-knit it up in huge swatches, a la Machine Knitting to Dye For, so I can dye those, instead.

The Machine Knitting to Dye For author has some interesting kits, including one she calls Machine Knitting to Weave for in which she sells large swatches of machine-knitted fabric to paint with dye (according to her directions), unravel, and then weave with. The results are amazing.

Paula

[YarnHollow]

I do a lot of cotton yarn dyeing and love it, especially when blindly selecting colors, mixing, pouring, and mashing. I start with a hot water soak to get the yarn good and wet, then a soda ash soak, wring, dye, set. Rinse like mad. Have fun!