CAN I OVER DYE THIS YARN?

CAN I OVER DYE THIS YARN?

Can I over dye yarn that has already been dyed?  It depends.  Here's why. If the yarn is fully saturated with color, in that the dye receptors on the yarn cannot take any more dye molucules aka color, than the answer is no.  If there are receptors that can take yarn, then the answer is yes.

For instance, I dyed this small sample a 2% DOS of Camaj Fiber Arts royal blue dye.   I used the correct amount of dye solution per dry weight of yarn.   Mind you, this sample had already gone through the full dyeing process, heat, salt, acid, exhausting and curing.  

After I dyed it I decided I wanted it a little bit more purply, so I over dyed it with a touch of violet dye. When adding new dye I added a bit more acid and cooked and cured again. This is the result.  It exhausted fully and turned out exactly as I wanted.

Since I was the one dyeing the yarn I knew it was done to correct specifications and it could take a bit more dye. However, when you buy hand dyed yarn you have no idea if the person dyeing used too much dye or even what DOS they used.  So what to do?

Wind off a small section of the yarn, maybe a couple of yards.  Soak the yarn in water for 30 minutes, drop the yarn in a small glass jar filled with clear water, acid and add just a little bit of the dye stock solution you want to over dye with.  

Put the jar in a pot of water with the water in the pot coming about half way up the jar, and boil the water. When the external water in the pot is boiling,  the inside water in the jar should be the temperature you need for leveling acid dyes.  Turn the heat down a bit just under high, put a lid on the pot, not the jar, and cook for 30 minutes.  The water should still be at a low boil.

After 30 minutes inspect the jar. If the water is full of dye, the yarn will no longer accept dye.  This means this yarn cannot be successfully over dyed.

If the water is exhausted you are good to go!  Just be careful how much dye you over dye with, not too much.  In fact, when you over dye you do not use the dye stock to fiber weight calculations, you would use much less dye solution in this case.

Another note is watch your colors when over dyeing. Make sure the color of the yarn and the color you are over dyeing turn out to be a pleasant color to you.  #colortheory.

Want to learn how to dye your own yarn? Join the popular online class Let's Dye Yarn!  CLICK HERE TO JOIN NOW.

We now carry top quality acid dyes that dye vibrant and work really well with wool, silk and nylon.  CLICK HERE to check them out.

This yarn was dyed using Camaj Fiber Art's leveling acid dyes