Yarn tips

:

Clear
Clear
Clear all

Preparation

In general, our yarns are supplied ready for dyeing. This means that they will only need soaking as preparation, if this is your requirement. However, there are a few exceptions to this, as detailed below.

Silk
Silk can be more water resistant, and will need soaking first. Yarns with a silk content of over 30% will need soaking for a few hours to get them fully saturated. If you use warm water this will decrease the time it takes, as will occasional squeezing of the yarn. In order to decrease the time further, put something on top of the yarns to keep them submerged and to stop them floating on the top.

Cellulose yarns
Although our cellulose yarns (noted with a V for vegan) are prepared for dyeing, they do benefit from an extra scouring step. This helps the dye penetrate better and will give you stronger colors. The procedure is the same whether you are using natural dyes, Procion MX or fiber-reactive dyes. We recommend the following steps:

  1. For 1kg of yarn, add 20ml of Synthrapol and 40g of soda ash to a pot with plenty of water.
  2. Add the yarn and simmer for 1 hour.
  3. Rinse and then proceed as you would normally for dyeing a cellulose fiber.

Ties

All our yarns use ties to help keep them in shape. It is helpful to use these ties to pick up the yarn when wet, as this reduces tangling. The yarns also have a colored tie which is used as an identifier. Each yarn base has a different color combination. This is helpful if you are mixing yarn types in the same dye batch. These are cotton based so should remain the same color once the yarn is dyed.

Dyeing tips

Any specific tips for dyeing particular yarns are covered in the description on their individual product pages.

Stellina
Stellina can sometimes be damaged or dulled at high acidity. We have found that using less acid and a longer fixing time helps. Vinegar tends to cause less damage as it’s a weaker acid.

Felting
It is much harder to felt yarns than people think! However, there are things to be careful of:
If a yarn is moving, at the bottom of a pan of boiling water, and it is close to the heat source, it will likely eventually felt.
Using a Bain-Marie can avoid this problem as long as you ensure that the base unit does not boil dry. Also, if the top pan is touching the heat source, this can burn the yarn, causing breaks and damage. This is the main cause of yarn damage in our experience.