Good evening, everyone.
Today I would like to talk a little about dyeing.
As I mentioned in my blog the other day, I use different dyes for cotton and wool.
(Some manufacturers allow you to dye both with one dye).
Animal fibers such as wool and silk, and synthetic fibers such as nylon use a dye called acid dye.
As the name "acid dyes" suggests, they are dyed using "acid".
What comes to mind when you hear the word "acid"?
Vinegar used for cooking and citric acid used for cleaning may be familiar examples.
When I first started dyeing, I used vinegar for cooking.
On the other hand, I use direct dyes for vegetable fibers such as cotton and hemp.
Instead of acid for acid dyes, salt is used for direct dyes.
Direct dyes can also dye animal fibers.
Then, why don't we just dye everything with direct dyes?
Some people may think so.
The same color can be produced regardless of the material, and I would like to do so, but the reason I change the method is "fastness".
For animal fibers, acid dyes have higher fastness than direct dyes.
Fastness indicates the degree of resistance to water, friction, sunlight, etc.
The color faded after washing!
The color has transferred when I sweat!
The color has bleached due to friction!
I don't want you to be disappointed after taking the time to knit, so I use different dyes.
However, since I use different dyes, even yarns with the same name but different materials (animal fiber and vegetable fiber) will have slightly different colors.
Direct dyes and acid dyes do not have the same corresponding colors.
Therefore, in this new work, we first dye cotton with direct dyes, and then dye alpaca lace by mixing several acid dyes according to the color of the cotton.
Recently, many people seem to be able to dye their own fabrics.
Please give it a try.
There are various dyeing methods and dyes other than those introduced here.
Please note that the above information may differ depending on the manufacturer and dye.