Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I found an old cream wool blanket the other day that my mother in law had given me. Also found in a drawer some acid dyes that I bought last year at Ally Pally and have never used, so set myself up for a morning of dyeing. It was so easy!!! All I had to do was weigh the blanket (which I cut into 18" squares for ease) and then wash it in some synthrapol (which fortunately I already had) and then rinse and add to the dye. This was warm water - enough to cover the blanket pieces - to which I added a paste made of a small amount of water and a teaspoon full of dye per 50g weight of blanket. Let it simmer gently for about 30 minutes, take it out and rinse it out and dry. Later I ironed it to 'set' the dye. Now all I have to do is decide what to do with it! But what lovely, heathery colours came out (well, not the turquoise obviously!).