I’m in the middle of dyeing some silk and cotton thread. Yes, there was a bit of spillage! No harm done, though. This is mostly a restocking of steady colors – purple, maroon (finally!), pearls, turquoise and shamrock. Yes, the bright turquoise cotton and the shimmery shamrock green silk come from the same dye bath, just different fibers. It’s also been a long time since I’ve had any variegated wine colors, so I did some handpainting on both a cotton hank and a silk hank, with just two colors instead of the usual three. How those turn out will be a pleasant mystery.

I’m also dyeing more of the color I refer to as Cambridge Blue, which is a pale color that isn’t quite blue, green or gray. That’s the spillage you see, which looks awfully green right now. That has little bearing on the final color. It’s only the second time I’ve made this color, and I’m also trying it in silk. Might be gorgeous. Might be mud. I will find out in a couple of days. Dye bath happened on Saturday. Rinsing will happen on Monday, and when the fiber gets completely dry, I’ll post the results!

I’m dyeing some thread this weekend, and I happened to think to snap pictures of the process. In the first photo, I’m in the middle of mixing the powdered dye with water, right to left. The color all the way to the left will, I hope, be a dark brown. I’m mixing a lot of black and a goodly bit of rust brown and crossing my fingers. The last time I tried to dye dark brown, I used a color called Chocolate Brown. The silk came out dark chile red, and the cotton was dark denim blue!

Some of the colors dissolve easily, and others take some work, especially at higher concentrations. Remember, always wear a mask and gloves! Click on photos to enlarge.

If all goes as planned, we will have, left to right, dark brown in silk and cotton, ivory/french vanilla in silk and cotton, red silk, yellow silk, blue silk, and the funky looking square is hand-painted variegated blues in cotton. Everything sits in the dye bath for a couple of days, and then comes the setting/rinsing marathon!

…and I’m right back where I started.

I’ve been trying off and on to find alternatives to dyeing my own thread. It’s fun and all, but it’s not what I’m all about, and I’m not geared towards color consistency across large quantities or long periods of time. So for cotton, after a lot of trial and error, I’ve found one brand of sewing/quilting/embroidery thread that has a weight that’s awfully close to size 100 cotton crochet thread. But I don’t think it’s better, except for the variegated colors, which are truly gorgeous. For silk, I thought I was home free, since I’d seen my favored beading cord in a rainbow array of colors. Yeah, but not in the size I need – only white and black. Not only that, but the company has gone out of business. There’s another brand, again with no color options in my size, that would be okay for dyeing, but it’s not dazzling white on its own.

So it looks like I’m back to using and dyeing the same threads I’ve been using all along. Oh, and stocking up on the silk before it completely disappears. I suppose it’s nice to find out that I’ve had good judgment about thread all along, but I’m disappointed I can’t improve on the situation.