I am a daily lurker on Arachne. It's not very often that I have time to post. I always enjoy what I read, and have learned so much. A special thanks to Geri for her input on conservation.which I always print out and save. The recent thread on blocking a silk scarf prompted this question.
Over the past year or two I bought recycled sari silk yarn from Darn Good Yarn (http://www.darngoodyarn.com/) to make a lace scarf or wall hanging. The colors are brilliant turquoise, and a beautiful, deep emerald green. The yarns are made by collectives in India and Nepal, and are handspun and hand dyed from recycled silk saris and sari remnants. It has been my experience in the past that the fabrics from those areas of the world have a tendency to not be colorfast, and tend to bleed onto everything around them when wet. I would like to prewash the yarn before I use it to wash out the excess dye. When I have dyed cotton fabric in the past, I used vinegar to set the dye. I'm not sure whether this can be done with silk. As an experiment I have filled the sink with water and let the yarn hank soak, drain, rinse, repeat.alternating lukewarm water with cold water. After 5 repeats, the water is still showing dye. I don't want to keep it wet for too long since the silk is more fragile when it's wet. Would a little bit of vinegar be OK? Any other ideas on how to set the dye? Thanks. Peg In an unseasonably warm Cleveland Heights, Ohio. - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
