Dying wool with Wilton Icing color

[Goulash]

I recently made some beads colored with Wilton Icing color, soaked them in vinegar twice and ran them through the washing maching. They're still bleeding color. Any suggestions?:confused:

[Maureen Grantham]

Setting dye with vinegar is an old wives tale. You could try Retayne bought from supermarket laundry shelves. Try a more reputable dye next time, your beads will very likely not be lightfast either.

[beebluefern]

Sorry I can't help out. I hope you find your answer and get those beads sorted out! I've heard dyeing with Wilton's is really a good way to dye wool. I've got some wool I want to spin and then change the color of it, so I might try Wiltons for over-dyeing this yarn! Do you think it might be the strength of the dye or maybe it is just this particular color.

[Maureen Grantham]

Koolaid is a better deal for dyeing I have heard. Depending on what you are dyeing for I would do some samples and put them on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks to see how fast Koolaid or Wiltons is. I once dyed some wool with onion skins, it was a beautiful yellow colour, but alas once I had knitted a fair isle jumper with it and washed it a couple of times the yellow faded to a miserable muddy brown, quite spoiled the jumper.

Actually this is staining, not dyeing. I use Procion MX for dyeing wool, cotton and silk with very wash and light fast results.

[sandvik]

I dye wool for rug hooking and I use acid dyes from Cushing or Pro Chem. These dyes must be set with citric acid which you can get in powder form or vinegar and then steamed for 45 to 60 minutes depending on the dye color. I prefer to steam more rather than less as the steam brighten the color.

Some of my friends have experimented wlith kool-aid and they have had good results but I do not know how color fast they are. Which is scary to me since my grand kids drink it.

Onion skins are good for dying and I layer the kins with several colors of wool usually having one color that will bleed a litlle such as red or blue, this produces interesting effects as the onion color and the bleeding color blends, set with acid as well.

I could go on all day about dying , sorry thius is kso wordSuz

[Goulash]

Thanks for the info. I soaked it in vinegar twice. Will try the citric acid. Can you elaborate for me your staming process?

Thank you again,

Susan

[vinesqueen]

Hi!

I've never used the icing for dying, but I've done the koolaide dying with some interesting results :eek:

I did this all about 15 years ago, so some tings might be a little hazy. I dyed both wool and spun yarn. The wool I split into two groups, with and without grease, and dyed those.

I'm not sure about sandvik's process, but what I did was get my largest glass pie-plate, the wool or yarn, koolaide powder, water and vinigar, and plastic wrap and my microwave.

I mixed up the powder in one batch and with another it was more just sprinkled on. Wrapped the whole thing with the plastic wrap and popped it into the microwave. I turned it on for however long it too to get it to the boiling point, and then just let it steam for about an hour.

the yarn and wool I think are still the same light quality as when I dyed them. I can link the pix if you like.

[beebluefern]

http://prettyimpressivestuff.com/blog/2005/07/dyeing-wool-with-wilton.html

Here is a link to dyeing with Wilton that a spinning friend of mine wrote.

[sandvik]

Susan
Regarding the steaming process. I either use a baking dish and put it in the oven at 250 for the 45 minutes or on top of the stove. If it is too big for this type of pan use a canning kettle or soup kettle on the stove. Either way make sure you have enought water so that the wool does not burn. I cover with aluminum foil. I add the vinegar or acid to the water that I am dying in at the end of the dying process and that is what I steam in.
Suz