Dyed silk hankies

I finally decided to dye my silk hankies prior to spinning. Unfortunately I forgot that silk could be dyed with food colouring. Well well, so I bought some silk dye from Panduro.  The batteries were completely drained in my camera so there are only after pictures available.

I soaked about 50 g of the hankies in water with some citric acid in a big glass jar for maybe 1 hour. After draining the water I simply sprinkled the dye over the hankies. However, the dye did not dilute in the fibres so I poured on some water. I used mainly a turquoise dye with some sprinkles of navy blue.  When I felt satisfied with the dyeing I put the jar with the hankies in the microwave oven. The description was for 3-4 minutes at 350 W. Which I more than doubled with rest in between. The water was still not clear…Hopefully the dye was set properly. I separated the hankies into smaller piles and hung them up to dry.

From Spinning

Every time I passed  them hanging there I felt happy. Hopefully I will like the yarn as much. I  intentionally left some parts white and some are  darker blue so the yarn will have some nice nuances.

From Spinning