Hi Fran, I have dyed wool yarns before, handspun stuff, with both chemical and natural dyes, and helped with one wool jacket, so I can offer a little advice. But others may have much better advice than I.
While it does take hot water to dye the garment, it is the agitation, and the shock of hot, or even cold water that will felt wool. First start with a newly cleaned sweater, that can be done in cool water, let me amend that, water that is room temperature, and well rinsed, with minimal movement. Then take the wet sweater and put it into a very large pot, preferably all steel or enameled, that is large enough for the sweater and the water needed to cover with room for stirring. Add cool water, that should match the temp of the sweater. Again this is to avoid the shock to the wool. Put the pot on the stove, then slowly bring the water to high enough temp to dye with (this depends on the dye you use, check directions for temp needed). Using a stir stick (that you can toss, since it will get dyed, unless it is steel or glass or something like that), move the sweater out of the way, and add in your dyes, and any other chemicals needed, per the dye directions. Stir the sweater gently but frequently so that the dye disperses throughout the pot, as you don't want streaks. Continue to stir the length of time needed for the dye, which also depends on how deep a color you want. Once you get a color deeper than you want, since wet color is darker than when the garment is dry, remove the pot from the heat. Allow the wool to remain in the pot for several hours or overnight, as the temp naturally falls. When the water is again room temp, carefully dump the remaining dye down the drain (again check your dye for disposal needs). Fill the pot with room temp water, and rinse several times until the water runs clear. Now, there's no guarantee that this will not shrink the wool, as that's a matter of the kind of wool that was used, if it was already preshrunk, if it was tightly finished, or chemically finished, or anything else for that matter. I've had some yarns not shrink at all, and some yarns shrink a lot. The jacket I helped with did shrink, but that was the chance my friend took. Good luck! Kimiko --- Lavolta Press <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Any advice on how to dye an ivory colored, modern, > machine knitted 100% > wool turtleneck sweater some less boring but solid > color, without > felting it or otherwise damaging the texture? The > heat and agitation in > most dye instructions, even those for wool, makes me > very antsy. I'm > not really into dyeing or working with wool, but I > got this sweater for > Christmas years ago, have never worn it because it's > boring, and have > decided I might as well dye it. If it works, I have > a nice-quality > ivory 1950s cashmere cardigan I'd like to do next. > > Fran > Lavolta Press > http://www.lavoltapress.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
