One snowy New Hampshire night, years ago, my friend Marcia invited me to learn how to hook area rugs. I was a seasoned crafter and also explained to her in which, with three small children, I wanted a task that could be completed rapidly. So she showed me how to make a penny area rug. For those who are new to made of woll crafting, penny rugs are comprised of pieces of wool that are appliqud, using the blanket stitch, onto a base piece of wool, or other fabric. Generations ago, women used scraps from their made of wool rug hooking efforts, and cut the particular scraps into circles, using a penny being a template. The circles were arranged in pretty designs, stitched onto the base cloth, and turned into adornments for the house -- desk runners, doilies, coverlets, etc. Nowadays, penny rug styles may be much more complicated, as crafters take the fine art to new locations. The craft is actually gaining popularity, because it is simple to create something fairly and useful concurrently. And a simple task could be completed in a night time or two.
So my buddy supplied me along with wool from the girl stash to get started. As soon as she brought out The particular Wool, I adored the craft. My partner and i made my own layout for that first dime rug and delivered my own style towards the project, using a concept from Genesis of the serpent in a tree inside the Garden of Eden, with thorns embroidered around the ends, growing in for the "garden" in the middle. The only components in the design that may be considered "pennies" were the actual round fruits around the tree. I managed to get symbolic, telling a tale in the Bible that was meaningful to me, which first project grabbed my attention, in order that I could hardly wait around to do more.
Whenever it came time for you to shop for more wool, I quickly realized that, because frugal as I had been, I would have a hard time affording all the colors that we wanted for future projects. So I determined to learn to dye my own wool. I have never already been one to take the outdone path or do anything whatsoever small-scale, so I was not likely to rush for the store and buy all of the pre-formulated colors and just commence dyeing. I needed someplace to begin, and a way to sample a large variety of colors that I could choose my favorites. So I rifled through old issues of 'Threads' journal to see if there might be helpful tips there. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon what turned out to be a life-changing article simply by Linda Knutson about dyeing using only the 3 primaries, dissolved in drinking water to a 1% dilution. I enjoyed this idea. It would keep the mechanics simple and the actual buying of supplies low, so that I could experiment to my money grubbing heart's content. The article also outlined a systematic way of trialing colors, using modern percentage-based formulas. Brilliant! A method to address my requirement for organization, while enabling me to be imaginative.
KEEPING COLOR CHOICES SIMPLE The very first decision I made at the outset was to just use white wool. Since then, I have had to content material myself with making use of natural, because white is not always available, and I want to be as steady as possible, since I additionally sell wool. (Utilizing natural wool will add a tiny bit associated with warmth to the shades, but not enough to bother with.) Before I started dyeing, We saw many formulations using a base made of woll of taupe, or khaki, and so on., but I concluded that I would have every color of the rainbow ultimately anyway, so to play one base color might keep everything constant. I further standard by creating supplements using only the three primaries. Sometimes in color family members or 'tiers' of color, from very bright to primitive, and I determine where a colour belongs by how most of the third primary it includes. If I were making use of mixtures of pre-formulated colors, this kind of organization could be impossible. My method also allows myself to see gaps among formulas, ensuring that I've a continuous selection all around the color wheel within each tier.
It is also easier to find colors which can be in between colors My partner and i already have. For instance, if I am studying two blues and I want to discover the color in between, splitting the difference in the formula will nearly always produce the color I want, provided I start with a couple of colors that are pretty similar. Sometimes it requires two stabs to get the formula right, but that is usually all it takes. By indicating all formulas within the same simple terms (3 colors, in proportions), we reduce a mystery formula to a numerical equation, rather than an informed guess.
GOING METRIC Like most of us, I will be accustomed to using English measurements, and when I actually do anything else I nevertheless use cups, yards, pounds, teaspoons and all the rest. But when I started dyeing made of woll, I felt a fantastic need to eliminate as much variables as I might. So I took a huge breath and turned my mindset, where The Wool is concerned, to getting metric measurement for everything, despite my previous reluctance to do this somewhere else in my life. I'm so glad Used to do. Honestly, using the metric system makes the math easy to manage once you are accustomed to it, and not beyond the average person with basic math skills.
The great beauty of the metric system is in which 1 ml of water weighs 1 gram, so liquid measure and dried up measure can be treated as equal for wool-dyeing reasons. This principle is completely key to everything one does when using this method. You can relate the particular gram weight of dye powder similarly to the ml measurement of water when making dyestock, and you can relate the actual gram weight with the wool equally towards the amount of ml in the dyestock, when choosing a value for a color.
For instance, My partner and i mix 1 gram of dye with 99 ml of water, creating A hundred ml of a '1% solution dyestock'. Because 1 ml of water weighs in at 1 gram, this 1/99 ratio of dye to water is actually mathematically accurate and easy to be able to quantify. I help make 1% dyestock for each primary, as well as store it all within milk jugs. So remember:
1 g dye powder 99 ml water Equals a 1% dyestock solution
USING PERCENTAGE-BASED FORMULAS Now I'm will make you think a little harder. You'd better go get a cup of coffee!
In addition to taking on the metric method, I continued standardizing my personal methods by making all formulas within percentages, rather than tsp . fractions. This results in a 'universal' formula that will perform, regardless of the size piece being dyed.
rugs 6x9 As an example, if I am using a formula that is 90% red and 10% yellow, that proportion will remain constant for almost any piece I color. Since every formula, no matter who causes it to be, is ultimately any mathematical equation, be it rendered in proportions or 1/16 teaspoons - doing work in percentages broadens what you can do to apply that formula in any circumstance.
I additionally use percentage measurement to determine how much dyestock to utilize to produce the value I want. It is generally recognized that 1% dye to the weight of the made of woll will produce a method value for most shades, and it is also well-known in which doubling the amount of color on the wool with each value produces a gradation that takes the color coming from light to darker in 6-8 jumps (this really is, in effect, what the 'jar method' achieves). So one good option for producing Half a dozen values, (working to the outside from the medium value at 1%) is to use: .125%, .25%, .5%, 1%, 2%, and also 4% (although 3% produces a colour nearly as dark, with less dye). Some time spent trialing values will give you a progression that you like, and this progression will work for most color formulas that you use, except, perhaps, formulas which can be mostly yellow : a slightly more over loaded progression is needed there.
Once I know what formula I want to use, as well as what value I want to make it, the only staying question is how much of the total formula to mix up, and I determine this through weighing the wool to be dyed, and also doing some basic calculations. Follow me via a sample calculation, and see if you can make sense of it:
Let's say I have One hundred grams of made of wool (about yard), and i also want to dye this to a medium worth in a 90% red Or 10% yellow formula. Given that a 1% ratio regarding dye-to-wool produces a medium benefit, and I already make use of a 1% dyestock solution, equal areas of dyestock and wool will certainly, therefore, produce the medium value which i want, since A hundred ml of 1% dyestock will certainly deposit 1% dye onto the wool. Once I know that I need 100 cubic centimeters of dyestock, I increase that amount occasions the percentages inside the formula. So I may mix 90 ml red and Ten ml yellow for this example.
Here is another instance, for dyeing 300g wool with a dark value at a 3% dye factor, using a formula containing 70% reddish / 10% yellow And 20% blue:
300g (wool) By 3 (dye aspect) = 900 milliliter dyestock
70% X 900 = 630ml red 10% X 900 = 90ml yellow 20% By 900 = 180ml blue
(Notice that we don't grow the weight of the made of woll by 3 percent, yet by 3. This is because the percentage symbol conveys the amount of dye powdered as a percentage of the actual dyestock that we need to get the worth we want, but in the particular equation we are calculating the amount of dyestock itself to use, which is exactly A hundred times the amount of coloring itself
karastan area rugs. Using percent in the equation would certainly divide the final response by 100, which would be incorrect. Thus dropping the pct sign and using the number alone is simply a magic formula to getting the correct response. ).
Have you heard the adage, "Give a man a seafood and you feed your pet for a day. Educate a man to seafood and you feed him or her for a lifetime" This is, in essence, what I am performing. Rather than saying, "here is really a formula that will coloring 1 yard associated with wool", I am showing you how to assemble boiler-plate formulas as well as equations that will take you where ever you want to go whenever dyeing, and with relative ease once you are used to that. Don't let the math frighten you - it's all regulated stuff we realized in the fifth quality, and you ARE smarter than a fifth grader!
I could enter into more detail the following (in fact there will be a magazine on this sometime in the future) but for now I am merely giving you the gist from the method. I will provide more help in future articles, so stay tuned in!
THE BENEFITS OF USING Water DYESTOCK Liquid dyestock is, undoubtedly, the most convenient method to dye wool. Even if you use pre-formulated colors, sustaining dyestock in the colors you use most will increase your dyeing -- you can head into the kitchen and color a few pieces effortlessly. One of the great benefits of this method is that you'll require only produce dyestock sometimes, if you produce a honest quantity. For instance, A single,000 ml regarding dyestock will dye 1,000 grams (about 2 1/2 yards) of made of woll to a medium value, so if you produce 3,000 ml of each and every primary, (nearly a gallon) this will have you through a fairly big project, or a number of smaller ones, even though you dye all your own wool. Once created, your dyestock will keep for a long time. Dyestock will, theoretically, final indefinitely, given the high quality and sterility of the water you use, but for sensible purposes, ProChem says it will last a minimum of Six months. If you dye frequently, there is not much threat of wasting plenty of dyestock.
Using liquid dyestock will give you the kind of control needed to dye small pieces with accuracy. Employing a 1-ml syringe (the type utilized to deliver insulin) tends to make this possible. And when using several shades to produce a formula, tiny nuances in sculpt can be made. For instance, whites are very, very difficult in order to formulate with precision, because tiny alterations in the red and also blue of a yellow formula produce dramatic results. Working in drops, however, these good changes are quite possible, in fact there is a expected mathematical progression of formulas in yellow that creates everything from near-green to near-orange, and every nuance in between.
Contrary to what you might think initially, I find this method to be a tidy way to dye, especially when the dye natural powder (nasty, messy products, in my opinion) spends usually in the cupboard. I personally use various-sized syringes and little graduated pitchers to dispense dyestock. Because the dyestock that I me is dilute, spills rarely cause a stain easily wipe them quickly, even on my oiled oak floors as well as birch countertops. I use screw-top covers to store dyestock, and keep the actual lids screwed upon when not in use, and I serve larger amounts of dyestock over the sink to avoid large accidents.
A FEW CAVEATS With all the three primaries does have the limitations, but they are couple of. I have formulated several browns and greens using the three primaries, however, these colors are more difficult to produce. Plenty of stirring is required, and also the use of Glauber's salt necessary to produce any kind of even result. Even then, the results may vary coming from batch-to-batch. If you are more restless about your results, you may prefer to utilize pre-formulated browns and greens, and add a small of the primaries to adjust these.
I use ProChem dyes, and also have yet to experiment with some other brands, although I will guess that even if the overall results vary from ProChem fabric dyes, those brands would still behave naturally, using the same methods.
I am hoping this inspires you to definitely try this method, which includes worked so well for me. This is actually the first in a number of articles on the subject, and in future articles I'll provide more fine detail about the methods I use, including equipment (along with resources), working in percentages, setting up mathematical progressions regarding color formulas, the way to trial color examples, and the care and also feeding of your dyestock.
To see the results of my personal many color studies, and the four sections of color which i work in, (all colors made using the three primaries), kindly visit me: