Dyeing with Indigo 9.13.15

Dyeing with IndigoSunday, September 13, 2015

We will be dyeing with indigo at our September meeting. There 

will be a $3-4 materials fee. We will prepare one batch at the 

meeting, and I will have one already prepared so we can start 

dyeing as the other one readies itself.

Bring your own fiber. To start we will limit it to 4 oz. per person. 

You can bring roving, skeins, fabric, scarves, clothing. white or 

colors.* Please prewash everything. Fiber/fabric should be 

damp prior to dyeing, it is probably easiest to bring it that way. 

Bring any natural fiber, wool, mohair, silk, flax, cotton, rayon.  

You can try some different fibers blended, different fibers take 

indigo differently, so if you have a wool/silk blend you may get 

a nice tweedy effect. Once everyone has done their 4 oz, you're 

welcome to do another 4 oz. more as long as the vat lasts.

Clean roving should be put in netted bags, either wash bags or 

scrubbies that have been opened up, cut to manageable lengths, 

with ends secured. Yarn should be wound on a swift or niddy-

noddy and secured in 4 or 5 places. You may want to label your 

fiber.

If you plan to dye fabric or clothing, there are numerous tech-

niques you can use such as tie dyeing; or use the shibori/itajime 

techniques of stitching, clamping with resists, twisting, or tying 

around a pole. This Pinterest link will take you to numerous 

examples and instructions if your unfamiliar and are interested 

in doing this. I will try to bring a few things if some would like 

to try it, but we won't have time for lengthly instructions. If link 

doesn't work, put shibori itajime into the search on pinterest. 

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Bring: 

• $3-4
• 4 oz fiber, fabric, or t-shirt
• plastic bags
• rubber gloves if you don't want blue hands & nails
• apron, wear old clothes
• old metal hanger or two
• towel or rag
• old mixing-size bowl, pie tin, small pail, something!

I need a few people to bring a couple of things, not everybody:

• drying rack
• colanders
• Itajime supplies–clamps and boards

I have probably forgotten a few things, check for another email 

a day or two before the meeting. 

* Colors. Thiox, used to reduce the indigo is a color remover, so 

if you put a yellow skein into the indigo it may remove the 

yellow. If the skein is bound in certain areas those areas may 

remain yellow, and you might get a green in-between. Thiox 

affects different colors differently, particularly darker colors. 

Anyone who has gotten bleach on a black t-shirt know it rarely 

goes to white, and depending on the make-up of the original dye 

you may end up with a peach, a pink, blue, etc. It may affect 

natural dyes differently, and if you want color blends, pieces can 

be over-dyed later.

ALSO: Nicky Epstein in Buffalo! Sept. 17-19

There are probably few of you unfamiliar with knitter Nicky 
Epstein. She has authored 28(!) books on knitting.

There are still spaces available for the Knitting Guilds' 
fall workshops with Nicky Epstein. Thursday evening there will 
be a power point presentation and fashion show on her new 
book "Knitting Reimagined", $5 admission. Two workshops ($40 ea. 
for non-KGGB members) on both Friday and Saturday. If you aren't 
planning on going to the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival, you may 
want to check this out.

More information can be found on the guild's website:
http://www.buffaloknittingguild.org/Seminars.html