Oops, sorry, dyeing is fun. My dye arrived in the post today and I'm excited about it, because I'm trying to make my woven wrap into exactly the colour I want. If you don't know what a woven wrap is, it's a long piece of material you carry a baby in. Or a todder. Or an older child, should you so desire. Find out more here.
| This is how my wrap started out (it had already been dyed before I got it). See the pretty swans? No, not really. There's the problem. |  |
| So I put it in the wash with thiourea dioxide and soda ash and it came out like this. |  |
| Still some colour in it. So I did it again. That's better, a nice blank canvas. Yes, I know you can't see the swans. Here's the trick - this wrap is made of a blend of cotton, linen and silk. The silk only shows on one side of the wrap for the background and on the other side for the swans. So I dyed the wrap using acid dye, which dyes animal fibres but not cellulose fibres - ie the silk but not the cotton or linen. |  |
| And now it looks like this. Unfortunately it's not what I wanted. Due to an error with the washing machine (the error was that it was too clever by half, like Microsoft Word) I wasn't able to leave the wrap in 90º water for half an hour like I was supposed to. That delicate shade is supposed to be dark lilac. Like this. |  |
Cut to today, and my new packet of dye has arrived in the post. (This is Sheffield. You can't just go to a shop and buy Jacquard Acid Dye Lilac 612.) And tonight I will redye, oh yes I will just you wait and see. (But in a different washing machine.)
Watch this space. This is the colourway I'm aiming for in the end... but I have no illusions it will end up like that!
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