Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dye Tips and Tricks


*If you blow your nose after dyeing and the tissue turns blue, you didn't handle the powdered dye safely.

*If you leave a crockpot full of dye on the low setting overnight, you will wake to the aroma of hot, moist burning hair. It lasts and last. It will also turn your roving into slime--hot, smelly slime. Plus I'm pretty sure it's a fire hazard, so don't tell the Housing Office.
*When the color says "hot," as in "hot fushia," it means eye-searing, nosebleed-inducing, potentially visually poisonous. You can make wool look like acrylic if you try hard enough!
*A Mr. Clean Magic Eraser will remove dye from cabinets, counters, sinks, and floors.

*Yellow dye makes your fingernails look diseased. Wear gloves.
*Acid dyes will not dye cotton, but they will stain it. Badly.
*Three days of dyeing probably gets enough chemicals in your household air to negate all of those organic vegetables.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just found your site. You have THE BEST blog name ever! The blue dye in your nose part freaks me out though. I'm in MT too.

Lovs2Knit said...

lol....I will keep those tricks in mind if I ever decided to dye some yarn or roving.

Susan said...

I think you've scared me off dying any wool forever. But if I do, I'll follow your tips very carefully. Your colors came out great, though.