Thursday 18 November 2010

More dyeing adventures- oven dyeing

I have been doing lots of dyeing lately, because of this I decided to try out a new technique- oven dyeing. The presoaked yarn is put in a baking tray (a deep one) with enough water and vinegar to just cover it, then dyes are poured on and smooshed about. The tray is covered with foil and put in the oven for about 40 minutes. It is left to cool then washed and dried as usual.
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There were a couple of reasons for trying this-
  • It is less messy than wrapping in cling film and steaming, I always get leaks!
  • The pans and foil are reusable, whereas the cling film gets binned
  • I can get two pans in the oven at a time, dyeing 200g but only 100g in the steamer pot.

There were a few problems with the method. The superwash yarn and fibres I used slurp up the dye pretty quickly, leaving you with white bits, especially on the bottom. And no one wants a white bottom!

I found that plenty of smooshing with a spoon helped, also turning the fibre/yarn over and adding half the dye to the bottom was effective if a little messy (plenty of old newspaper all round to catch the drips). If all else fails call it intentional!

The other problem I had was with the pans I bought. I initially got some solid metal trays in preference to foil ones as I was worried about the foil bending when it was full (which it does). This was ok, but I don't think they appreciated sitting overnight full of vinegery water as the fibre cooled. Rust patches started to develop, and I have been told rust can affect how the colours come out.

As a solution I am currently using foil trays sat in the now slightly rusty pans. This works quite well as there is less water to heat as the foil pans are smaller (saves energy) and the solid metal pans stop the foil bending and dye going all over the carpet. Also if the dye tray does bubble over a little it goes into the second pan rather than all over the oven.

This picture shows close up of the yarn in the dye, it looks so pretty, I think it is even better when it is wet than when it is dry, all shiny. Maybe I need to experiment with different base yarns! The grabbiness of the superwash can be seen here in the fact the blue and purple are sat next to each other with almost no bleeding.
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12 comments:

  1. How does it work with acid dyes? I know I have a dedicated microwave for dyeing but wouldn't the stove have contamination?

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  2. I use Jacquard acid dyes, the dye is all contained in the smaller foil pan and covered over with foil so it can't get out. The extra pan I use for rigidity means that should any boil over/slosh out when it is being carried around it will not come into contact with the oven (or my carpet!).
    I reckon that is plenty safe enough, I would probably not put food in the oven at the same time, but that is mostly because the vinegar smells. As long as it all stays seperate I figure I am good :)

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  3. great idea-how hot is the oven temp?

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  4. Thanks for explaining...it's always fun to learn a new technique from someone else's perspective.

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  5. I was running the oven at about 180 degrees Centigrade

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  6. I was totally thinking of trying soemthing similar this weekend! I was thinking of using my casserole dishes since they are glass and wouldn't react with dyes.

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  7. You created some beautiful colors!

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  8. Pretty colors, it's great to have multiple methods of setting the dye, thanks!

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  9. Great explanation! I really like how you keep everything contained in the foil. Just a question about the cooling process--when I do this, I treat the fiber just as I do when I kettle dye: I take it out of the dye bath and let it cool/drip in my studio sink. Then rinse thoroughly. It's faster, and lets me use my pots again immediately.
    But I know of a few other people that leave fiber in the bath overnight to cool, and I'd love to learn the benefits of this (haven't had the chance to ask them). Is it to exhaust all the dye? My dye is exhausted in the bath already.
    Thanks for teaching me!

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  10. Thank you for sharing your dyeing experience. It's amazing how the dyes don't run into each other in the pan. This sounds like a great method for doing several skeins of the same color.

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  11. Wow. More and more new things to put on the list of stuff to learn. Sounds like a great technique. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  12. I usually leave it in the pot/pan to cool. Mostly because that's what the book told me to do :D.
    I think it is meant to allow it to absorb the last of the dye and I did find I had more residual run off when I caved and washed a not quite cool hank of yarn (but that may have been a coincidence)
    I have done an immersion dye in a pot of blue which had lots of residual at the end of cooking, which all disappeared over night, so maybe it depends how it is doing when you switch the heat off.
    Fibre type, dye quantities are also going to have a bit of an effect on it.
    That said if it works for you I figure there is no right and wrong, just different ways

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