ok so on the dyeing front

ok so my dyeing adventure started when ally and i visited our dear friend the fletchers - we'd finally got our quaterly rates bill so i was happy to know that we used less the average water in our council; i'd asked some questions on reducing water usage on nappycino and also instigated a few more water saving behaviours around our home so i could do some dyeing without guilt.

so the lovely lesley gave me a dyeing demo with some hemp and dye i took over with me - it's the pink one in the picture.

lesley used the directions from a website which she's given me the link to (must find it again - sigh) and it's really quite a simple routine.

the photo is of the smooth side of hemp fleece - the fuzzy side seems much more even.

ok so in the pics from the previous post there's the nappy bucket full of dye - first round. i did that lot by memory instead of reading the instructions so the concentration of the dye ended up being way too low as the bamboo/organic cotton velour came out looking like the purple hemp above. so i called lesley (for the 3rd time that day i think - thanks for your patience and hand holding lesley) and asked if i could go over the top of it. so i did. and this time i read the instructions as well as remembered lesley's demo and the dye mix was much darker (as i wanted) and that's the pics of me at the sink - doing lots of agitating and then showing hubby the colour.

so the BV and greg's fisherman's pants went in first with lots of swirling and time in the soak. then i took them out and put the silk, hemp and a less than white terry square in. so in the pics in the previous post the glossy one on it's own is the BV - it's a bit darker than that as you'll see in the next post with some pads i made out of it. the pic above has greg's pants (darkest), silk scarf (looks pinkish) and the towel nappy (which is rather pale). i don't really know why they all came out different shades but i'll learn with practice i'm sure.

i was surprised how much colour kept coming out with the 2 rinses i did - however i have put some things in our wash and had no problems with dye on other items.

hugs

karen