One snowy Nh night, years ago, my friend Marcia invited me up to learn how to hook carpets. I was a seasoned crafter and also explained to her which, with three small children, I wanted a undertaking that could be completed swiftly. So she demonstrated how to make a penny rug. For those who are new to made of wool crafting, penny carpets are comprised of pieces of wool that are appliqud, using the blanket stitch, on a base piece of made of wool, or other fabric. Decades ago, women utilized scraps from their made of woll rug hooking endeavours, and cut the actual scraps into groups, using a penny being a template. The groups were arranged in pretty designs, sewn onto the base cloth, and turned into decorations for the house -- desk runners, doilies, coverlets, etc. Today, penny rug models may be much more complex, as crafters take the fine art to new areas. The craft is gaining popularity, because it is simple to create something fairly and useful at the same time. And a simple undertaking could be completed in an evening or two.
So my pal supplied me with wool from the girl stash to get started. From the time she brought out The Wool, I loved the craft. I made my own style for that first cent rug and introduced my own style towards the project, using a theme from Genesis of the serpent in a tree within the Garden of Eden, together with thorns embroidered around the ends, growing in towards the "garden" in the middle. The only elements in the design that may be considered "pennies" were the particular round fruits on the tree. I made it symbolic, telling a tale in the Bible that was meaningful to me, and that first project grabbed my attention, so that I could hardly hold out to do more.
Whenever it came time and energy to shop for more made of woll, I quickly realized that, as frugal as I had been, I would have a hard time giving all the colors that I wanted for long term projects. So I going to learn to dye my very own wool. I have never been one to take the outdone path or do anything small-scale, so I was not willing to rush to the store and buy all the pre-formulated colors and just commence dyeing. I needed someplace to start out, and a way to test a large variety of colors from where I could choose my top picks. So I rifled through old issues of 'Threads' newspaper to see if there might be helpful information there. Lo and see, 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 liked this idea. It would keep your mechanics simple and the actual buying of supplies to a minimum, so that I could test to my greedy heart's content. The article also outlined a systematic approach to trialing colors, using intensifying percentage-based formulas. Brilliant! Ways to address my requirement for organization, while enabling me to be imaginative.
So I would like to share together with you, after the thousands of hours I have spent using these methods, why I really like them.
KEEPING COLOR CHOICES SIMPLE The initial decision I produced at the outset was to just use white wool. Since that time, I have had to articles myself with making use of natural, because white is not always available, and that i want to be as consistent as possible, since I additionally sell wool. (Making use of natural wool can add a tiny bit associated with warmth to the colors, but not enough to worry about.) Before I started dyeing, We saw many formulas using a base made of wool of taupe, or khaki, and so on., but I concluded that I would have every colour of the rainbow ultimately anyway, so to play one base color would keep everything constant. I further standard by creating formulas using only the three primaries. I work in color family members or 'tiers' of shade, from very bright to primitive, and that i determine where a color belongs by how much of the third primary it includes. If I were using mixtures of pre-formulated colors, this kind of organization could be impossible. My technique also allows me to see gaps in between formulas, ensuring that I've a continuous selection all around the color wheel in each tier.
It's also easier to find colors that are in between colors We already have. For instance, if I am studying two doldrums and I want to find the color in between, busting the difference in the formulation will nearly always generate the color I want, provided that I start with 2 colors that are relatively similar. Sometimes it takes two stabs to get the method right, but that is usually all it takes. By expressing all formulas inside the same simple terms (3 colors, in rates), we reduce a mystery formula to a statistical equation, rather than an educated guess.
GOING Statistic Like most of us, I am accustomed to using Language measurements, and when I really do anything else I nonetheless use cups, meters, pounds, teaspoons and all the rest. But when I started dyeing made of wool, I felt a fantastic need to eliminate as numerous variables as I can. So I took a huge breath and changed my mindset, the location where the Wool is concerned, to getting metric measurement regarding everything, despite my previous reluctance to do this somewhere else in my life. I'm so glad I did so. Honestly, using the statistic system makes the mathematics easy to manage an individual will be accustomed to it, rather than beyond the average person together with basic math expertise.
The great beauty of the actual metric system is which 1 ml of water weighs One gram, so liquid measure and dry measure can be treated as equal for wool-dyeing purposes. This principle is absolutely key to everything 1 does when using this method. You can relate the particular gram weight of dye powder similarly to the ml dimension of water when coming up with dyestock, and you can relate the gram weight of the wool equally to the amount of ml inside the dyestock, when choosing a value for any color.
For instance, My partner and i mix 1 gram of dye together with 99 ml of water, creating One hundred ml of a '1% solution dyestock'. Because 1 ml of water weighs in at 1 gram, this particular 1/99 ratio of coloring to water is mathematically accurate and easy to be able to quantify. I help to make 1% dyestock for each primary, as well as store it all within milk jugs. So remember:
1 gram dye powder + Ninety nine ml water Equals a 1% dyestock solution
Making use of PERCENTAGE-BASED FORMULAS Now I'm going to make you think a little tougher. You'd better go obtain a cup of coffee!
In addition to implementing the metric system, I continued standardizing my personal methods by manifestation all formulas within percentages, rather than teaspoon fractions. This results in a 'universal' formula that will perform, regardless of the size item being dyed. For instance, if I am using a formulation that is 90% red as well as 10% yellow, that proportion will remain constant for any piece I color. Since every method, no matter who makes it, is ultimately a mathematical equation, be it rendered in rates or 1/16 teaspoons - doing work in percentages broadens your ability to apply that formulation in any circumstance.
I additionally use percentage way of measuring to determine how much dyestock to utilize to produce the value I would like. It is generally known that 1% dye for the weight of the wool will produce a method value for most colours, and it is also well-known which doubling the amount of coloring on the wool together with each value creates a gradation that takes the color through light to darker in 6-8 jumps (this really is, in effect, what the 'jar method' does). So one great option for producing Six values, (working to the outside from the medium worth at 1%) is to use: .125%, .25%, .5%, 1%, 2%, and also 4% (although 3% produces a color nearly as dark, with less coloring). Some time spent trialing values will give you a progression that you like, and this progression will work for most colour formulas that you use, except, perhaps, formulas which are mostly yellow -- a slightly more saturated progression is needed presently there.
Once I know what formula I want to use, and also what value I wish to make it, the only staying question is how much of the total formula to mix upwards, and I determine this through weighing the wool to be dyed, and also doing some basic calculations shaw area rugs. Follow me by way of a sample calculation, and find out if you can make sense than it:.
Let's say I have 100 grams of wool (about yard), and I want to dye that to a medium benefit in a 90% red Or 10% yellow formula. Since a 1% ratio of dye-to-wool produces a medium worth, and I already make use of a 1% dyestock solution, equal elements of dyestock and wool may, therefore, produce the medium value that I want, since One hundred ml of 1% dyestock will deposit 1% dye on the wool. Once I realize that I need 100 cubic centimeters of dyestock, I multiply that amount times the percentages within the formula. So I may mix 90 milliliter red and 10 ml yellow with this example.
Here is another instance, for dyeing 300g wool with a dark value with a 3% dye factor, employing a formula containing 70% reddish / 10% yellow / 20% blue: rugby world cup 2011.
300g (wool) X 3 (dye aspect) = 900 milliliter dyestock
70% X 900 = 630ml red 10% X Nine hundred = 90ml yellow 20% By 900 = 180ml blue
(Notice that we don't multiply the weight of the made of woll by 3 percent, yet by 3. The reason being the percentage symbol expresses the amount of dye powder as a percentage of the dyestock that we need to get the worth we want, but in the equation we are figuring out the amount of dyestock itself to use, which is exactly A hundred times the amount of color itself. Using % in the equation might divide the final answer by 100, which may be incorrect. So dropping the percent sign and using the quantity alone is simply a quick way to getting the correct answer.)
Have you heard the adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed your pet for a day. Teach a man to seafood and you feed him for a lifetime" This is, essentially, what I am doing. Rather than saying, "here can be a formula that will dye 1 yard regarding wool", I am showing you ways to assemble boiler-plate formulas and equations that will take you wherever you want to go whenever dyeing, and with relative simplicity once you are used to that. Don't let the math frighten you - it's all stuff we discovered in the fifth level, and you ARE smarter than the usual fifth grader!
I could enter into more detail right here (in fact there will be a novel on this sometime in the future) but for now I am just giving you the gist from the method. I will supply more help in future articles, so stay tuned in!
THE BENEFITS OF USING Fluid DYESTOCK Liquid dyestock is, without a doubt, the most convenient approach to dye wool. Even though you use pre-formulated colors, maintaining dyestock in the colors you utilize most will speed up your dyeing -- you can head into the kitchen and dye a few pieces very easily. One of the great conveniences of this method is that you might want only produce dyestock occasionally, if you produce a reasonable quantity. For instance, One,000 ml regarding dyestock will dye 1,000 grams (a couple of 1/2 yards) of wool to a medium value, so if you produce Three,000 ml of each and every primary, (nearly a gallon) this will have you through a fairly huge project, or a number of smaller ones, although you may dye all your personal wool. Once made, your dyestock will keep for some time. Dyestock will, theoretically, previous indefinitely, given the top quality and sterility of the water you use, but for practical purposes, ProChem says it'll last a minimum of Six months. If you dye on a regular basis, there is not much risk of wasting plenty of dyestock.
Using liquid dyestock will give you the kind of control required to dye small parts with accuracy. Using a 1-ml syringe (the type used to deliver insulin) tends to make this possible. So 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 accuracy and reliability, because tiny changes in the red and blue of a yellow formula produce remarkable results. Working in falls, however, these good changes are quite possible, in fact there is a predictable mathematical progression of formulations in yellow that creates everything from near-green to near-orange, and each nuance in between.
Contrary to what you are able think initially, I find this method to be a clean way to dye, especially when the dye powdered (nasty, messy things, in my opinion) spends most of the time in the cupboard. I personally use various-sized syringes and small graduated pitchers to distribute dyestock. Because the dyestock that I use is dilute, spills rarely cause a stain basically wipe them swiftly, even on my oiled oak floors and also birch countertops. I use screw-top covers to store dyestock, and keep the lids screwed on when not in use, and I serve larger amounts of dyestock over the sink to avoid big accidents.
A FEW CAVEATS Using the three primaries does have its limitations, but they are couple of. I have formulated many browns and blacks using the three primaries, nonetheless, these colors tend to be more difficult to produce. Plenty of stirring is required, and also the use of Glauber's salt obligatory to produce any kind of even result. Even then, your results may vary coming from batch-to-batch. If you are more fussy about your final results, you may prefer to make use of pre-formulated browns and greens, and add a tiny of the primaries to adjust these.
I use ProChem dyes, and possess yet to experiment with additional brands, although I will guess that even if the overall results vary from ProChem dyes, those brands would certainly still behave incredibly, using the same methods.
I really hope this inspires you to definitely try this method, which includes worked so well for me. This is actually the first in a series of articles on the subject, and in future articles I will provide more fine detail about the methods I take advantage of, including equipment (with resources), working in proportions, setting up mathematical progressions of color formulas, how to trial color trials, and the care and also feeding of your dyestock.
To see the results of my many color studies, and the four divisions of color that we work in, (all colors produced using the three primaries), check out me:
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