MORE DYE STOCK SOLUTIONS

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

After working out the calculations for dyeing the warp skeins, I checked my stock solutions and discovered I needed to make more Sabraset Sun Yellow and Sabraset Violet. That meant moving out to my dyeing station in the garage.

It’s just a small place, the tops of two cabinets, covered with newspaper. Easily set  up and taken down.

The scale dominates the scene—my triple beam balance scale.  Usually for dye powders I have used my little 10-gram balance scale.  My chemist friend assures me this is the same scale that drug dealers use……….   Well, it must surely be accurate, then!

But I decided to drag out the big scale, and honestly, it did seem a bit easier to use.  That is, it seemed easier to get the right amount of powder in, largely because I’m putting it in a larger container.  Ten grams of dye powder usually fills the little scale’s pan to almost overflowing. So I shall probably continue to use the big triple balance.

Directly behind the scale is a very inexpensive (i.e., cheap) electric blender.  It does a much better just of mixing the dye powder into solution, especially for those colors that just don’t want to get mixed and insist on clumping.  Like Sun Yellow. 

The small clear plastic containers on the right in the front are what I use to put the dye powder into for weighing.  The white powder mask is also visible on the tray.  Invisible are the green disposable plastic gloves.

Just outside the garage to the right is a hose which I can use for anything that needs to be rinsed out in between measuring different colors.  In our Georgia house,  we added the garage and I had a sink put in at the time.  That sink out to be a wonderful investment, both for dyeing and for cleaning up after gardening.

Related Post:  Making Stock Solutions

"More Dye Stock Solutions” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on October 29, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.