HOW TO GET YARN TO STOP BLEEDING
Well, you bought a hand dyed skein of yarn from an indie dyer and when you finish your garment and go to wash it (in cold water, never use hot water and using soap that is not alkaline and is formulated for wool) it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. There is no stopping it!
First of all, why is this happening. The dyer may have not used the correct calculations in one or all of the following:
1. Dye solution to fiber weight
2. Temperature of dye water
3. Cooking time
4. Curing time
5. pH is not correct
But how does one know? You don't know. That's the frustrating part. Do this to see if the yarn is going to bleed BEFORE you make a garment.
Wind off a few yards of the yarn. Drop it in a small bowl of cold water with a drop of soap that is not alkaline and is formulated for wool and see if it bleeds. If it doesn't you are good to go. If it does, there are issues we need to address and try to fix.
OK, so now you know it's bleeding. Many say soak in a vinegar solution, but that only solves one problem that may have arisen, the pH. We must address the temperature and cooking time.
Try this instead: Fill up a pot of water. NOTE: if this is acid dye you MUST use a pot that is not intended to cook food in again, safety first.
Put in the yarn, add some acid to get the pH to at least 4. Using pH papers is really the only way to know what the pH level measres.
Slowly turn up the heat to about 185 degrees F. Do NOT boil the water, unless they used metallized or pre-metallized dyes.
Hold the temperature at 185 degrees F and cook for 30 minutes.
After this is done, inspect the pot. If the water is still not clear, it's doomed. If the water is clear...success! If the water still has a scant amount of dye, don't take the yarn out of the water, let it sit and cure overnight and inspect the dye pot the next morning.
If you get hand dyed indie yarn that is bleeding, you may be so inclined to contact said dyer and let her know the issue. I guarantee you they know it's bleeding, because when they do their final rinse, it's bleeding. Or maybe they are not even doing a final rinse to know it's bleeding.
If you tried any of the above tactics to stop bleeding let me know how it went in the comments below.
If you want to dye your own yarn join my dynamic, popular online dyeing class Let's Dye Yarn. CLICK HERE TO JOIN.
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
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