anotheranon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anotheranon) wrote2007-09-05 03:53 pm
anotheranon) wrote2007-09-05 03:53 pm
Entry tags:
toxic chemicals, Gromit!
I did do that dyeing I intended.
I'd been planning for.. oh... at least two winters now... to refresh the black dye on two of my favorite sweaters. A couple of weeks ago I finally got it together and ordered Dharma Trading's most intense black dye along with all the correct developers and prewashes - I've done machine dyeing before, but either due to frugality or disbelief ("3 cups of salt?!") I've never done it properly. Today, that changed.
Dharma Trading's "jet black" dye for cotton isn't yer grandma's supermarket dye - this stuff looks like coffee grounds dry and turns to thick, inky tar when wet. Even a tiny speck goes dark and far, tinting a gallon-sized bowl of water dark blue. Do not (DO F*CKING NOT) spill (I didn't, but I shudder to think).
I used 4 tablespoons of it as DT recommends 4x the usual dosage to get things really dark. I felt like a wizard with Black Hole Potion of Doom dumping this into the washer.
In order for it to work properly, the dye needs 1) hot water, 2) non iodized salt as a developer, and 3) soda ash as a fixer, and I used all 3. To keep the water hot and agitating I had to keep running back to the washer every 10 minutes or so to set it back to power cycle for about an hour and a half.
I won't know the full results until the sweaters dry, but a quick glance in the spin cycle suggests that my sweaters are now so dark that they're going to start sucking up light and small objects :P In addition, I cleaned up as I went so I'm going to tentatively call this a success.
Of course, I have to hand-wash the machine with bleach once all this is done :P
I'd been planning for.. oh... at least two winters now... to refresh the black dye on two of my favorite sweaters. A couple of weeks ago I finally got it together and ordered Dharma Trading's most intense black dye along with all the correct developers and prewashes - I've done machine dyeing before, but either due to frugality or disbelief ("3 cups of salt?!") I've never done it properly. Today, that changed.
Dharma Trading's "jet black" dye for cotton isn't yer grandma's supermarket dye - this stuff looks like coffee grounds dry and turns to thick, inky tar when wet. Even a tiny speck goes dark and far, tinting a gallon-sized bowl of water dark blue. Do not (DO F*CKING NOT) spill (I didn't, but I shudder to think).
I used 4 tablespoons of it as DT recommends 4x the usual dosage to get things really dark. I felt like a wizard with Black Hole Potion of Doom dumping this into the washer.
In order for it to work properly, the dye needs 1) hot water, 2) non iodized salt as a developer, and 3) soda ash as a fixer, and I used all 3. To keep the water hot and agitating I had to keep running back to the washer every 10 minutes or so to set it back to power cycle for about an hour and a half.
I won't know the full results until the sweaters dry, but a quick glance in the spin cycle suggests that my sweaters are now so dark that they're going to start sucking up light and small objects :P In addition, I cleaned up as I went so I'm going to tentatively call this a success.
Of course, I have to hand-wash the machine with bleach once all this is done :P
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