We always enjoy experimenting with our dyes. Many customers have written and enthusiastically commented on their results.

The dyes can be purchased in three ways:

ALL COLOUR PACK Contains 11 colours. 10gm pots
RAINBOW PACK -  3 PRIMARY COLOURS 10 gm pots. This contains red, yellow, blue and one pot dyeing recipe
SINGLE COLOURS 10, 50 & 250gm pots

In Japan we met with a group of 30 fibrecraft enthusiasts and we spent a glorious day trying the Rainbow One Pot Dyeing technique using the Rainbow Primary 3 Colour Pack.

The Fleece Wool
We selected a high lustre long fibre 6 - 7". The fibre was superb - that strong Romney type with a beautiful crimp 31-33 micron. This type of fleece wool is easy to wash clean for dyeing without so much danger of felting or matting during the process.

Washing
Using a mixture of detergent and hot soapy water we all took a portion of the fleece wool and gently squeezed it through the water until it was clean. We sometimes had to rub the tips of the staples to remove the dirt. Next we rinsed the fibre in clean hot water and placed it in the dyepots.

The Method
This is the exciting part.
We had large dyepots with the capacity to hold 1kg so were able to put three layers of the wool into each dyepot.

Click here to download Rainbow dyeing method and Cold Dyeing Method

 

 

Results!
We tipped each pot out onto a large piece of plastic mesh to drain.

WOW! - Each pot was so beautiful.

The most exciting fact about the batch of dyed wool in each pot - all the colours are dyed in the same hue so they all look perfect together! One lot was bright and vivid, one very rich Persian shades, others were all variations - wonderful!

  1. Every group poured the colours in, all following the same instructions but this is where human nature takes over. Some poured slowly and were very careful to keep the colour in their segments. Others were more haphazard, poured fast, not waiting for the dye to soak in.
  2. All the heat sources were gas but all were slightly different. Some had ON/OFF - no choice of settings. Some had HIGH-MED-LOW and some gave a choice of 1 - 12. So all the wool heated at different speeds.
My choice was the pot where the temperature was higher and the colours had mixed together - especially the centre area where there were rich inky blues, deep purples and browns and rusty reds! These blend beautifully with the brighter shades when used in graduating stripes for knitting.