Dyeing with colored wools

I have had a wonderful winter in Florida while the West Shore Gals have been getting ready for Rug School. As always they work very hard to make it another great year.
As always at this time of year I am excited to return to beautiful northern Michigan.
I have been sorting through the balance of the wools that I brought with me to dye.
I love using colored wools to change formulas and add another dimension to my dyed pieces. I thought I woulds share some of the ways I use this wool.

I started out with 1 yard of wool. 1/2 was a light grey and 1/2 yard was celery.I used a Prisms#2 formula called Winter's Eve. 1/8 black # 672, 1/8 Turquoise # 478 and 1/16 Magenta #349. I mixed these in a 2 cups of Boiling water with aric small amount of citric acid. Prisms also talks about how you can add more of one of the above dyes. I chose 1/16 turquoise # 478 in another 2 cups of boiling water with citric acid again.

Now ready for dyeing, I put the 1/2 yard of light grey in my presto pot. I poured 1/4 of the total formula from cup one over the cloth. I then poured 1/4 formula from cup number two with only the turquoise over the cloth in other spots. I waited a minute and then turned the wool over in the pot. I waited until the water cleared and then continued to cook the wool for about 15 minutes more.

While the above was cooking I used my electric fry pan and put 1/2 yard of the celery wool in it. laying it out somewhat accordion style to fit the bottom of the pan. I then spotted the wool with the balance of the two dyes. I was not sure I had enough dye to go over the whole piece so after using 1/4 of each cup I added a small amount of water to each. Then continued to cover the wool. This also cooked for 15 minutes after the water cleared.











Even though these two pieces are different they can be used together or separately as a great winter sky or evening sky. The Prisms formulas are a great addition to your dyeing materials and can be used in a number of ways. Not just as they are listed in the books.

Please note that we will be selling wool yardage (both natural, colored, and plaids)
at Rug School. This is great for your wool stash. If you don't want to dye, these wools can be purchased at www.woollytrout.com

Winter Blues
Summer is over. A very busy and nice one. So it is now time to get to work and fill my studio shelves back up. If asked what is my leastt favorite color, I would tell you blue. But then I look around and I have blue in most of my rugs and a lot of accents around my house. But that seemed to be one of the colors I was lacking. So I got out the dye pots. I came up with the following formula that I call WINTER BLUES.

In 2 cups of boiling water, I added 1/2 t. national blue #425, 1/16 t. #490 blue, and 1/16 t. #338 red

This will dye over a yard of natural giving you several pieces of dark blue, medium and lighter blues.  I am trying to use more of my recycled wools so also dyed over some lighter grey with some poly fiber  flecks in it and some small checks. The recycled wools may take up a little more dye that the naturals. So the amount of wool you can dye may vary.

In my second batch I changed the formula using 1/4 t. 425, 1/32 490, 1/32 338 and added 1/32 turquoise # 478. I once again used natural, a black and white check, the light grey with the poly fiber and also some camel which which gave it a green/ blue cast.

As I sell wool, I have in the past skipped over many of my recycled wools, because they were odd ball pieces or I am not sure how they will take the dyes. So I am trying to start a new resolution. I will pull those textures and strange pieces off my storage shelves and share with you my formulas and ideas as the fall and winter goes on.


I hope you have a fun, fun time in the dye pots. Don't be afraid to try substitute another dye if you don't have the exact ones that I mention. If you do, you will have made your very own formula.
Not ready to try dyeing your own wool yet? All of the above wools mentioned are available at the http://www.woollytrout.com site. I can also be reached for questions at woollytrout@gmail.com
Come back and see us soon.