One snowy New Hampshire night, years ago, my buddy Marcia invited me to learn how to hook rugs. I was a seasoned crafter as well as explained to her which, with three young kids, I wanted a undertaking that could be completed swiftly. So she showed me how to make a penny carpet. For those who are new to made of wool crafting, penny area rugs are comprised of bits of wool that are appliqud, with all the blanket stitch, onto a base piece of made of wool, or other fabric. Years ago, women used scraps from their made of woll rug hooking initiatives, and cut the particular scraps into groups, using a penny being a template. The circles were arranged within pretty designs, sewed onto the base material, and turned into decorations for the house -- table runners, doilies, coverlets, etc. Today, penny rug styles may be much more complex, as crafters take the art to new areas. The craft will be gaining popularity, because it is simple to create something pretty and useful simultaneously. And a simple undertaking could be completed in a night time or two.

So my pal supplied me along with wool from the woman's stash to get started. As soon as she brought out The actual Wool, I loved the craft. I made my own design for that first dime rug and brought my own style towards the project, using a theme from Genesis of the snake in a tree in the Garden of Eden, together with thorns embroidered around the sides, growing in on the "garden" in the middle. The only factors in the design that might be considered "pennies" were the actual round fruits around the tree. I made it symbolic, telling an account in the Bible which was meaningful to me, which first project grabbed my attention, to ensure that I could hardly wait around to do more.

Any time it came time to shop for more wool, I quickly realized that, since frugal as I had been, I would have a hard time giving all the colors that I wanted for potential projects. So I going to learn to dye my own, personal wool. I have never already been one to take the defeated path or do just about anything small-scale, so I was not likely to rush for the store and buy all the pre-formulated colors and just start dyeing. I needed someplace to begin, and a way to test a large variety of colors from where I could choose my top picks. So I rifled through aged issues of 'Threads' journal to see if there might be tips there. Lo and see, I stumbled upon what ended up being a life-changing article simply by Linda Knutson about dyeing using only the three primaries, dissolved in water to a 1% dilution. I loved this idea. It would maintain the mechanics simple and the particular buying of supplies low, so that I could experiment to my carried away heart's content. The article furthermore outlined a systematic way of trialing colors, using intensifying percentage-based formulas. Brilliant! A way to address my requirement for organization, while allowing me to be imaginative.

KEEPING Colour CHOICES SIMPLE The initial decision I produced at the outset was to only use white wool. Since then, I have had to articles myself with using natural, because white is not always available, and i also want to be as steady as possible, since I also sell wool. (Utilizing natural wool can add a tiny bit regarding warmth to the colours, but not enough to worry about.) Before I started dyeing, My partner and i saw many formulas using a base made of wool of taupe, or khaki, and so on., but I concluded that I would have every colour of the rainbow eventually anyway, so to play one base color would keep everything constant. I further standardized by creating formulas using only the three primaries. I work in color family members or 'tiers' of color, from very vibrant to primitive, and i also determine where a colour belongs by how much of the third primary it contains. If I were using mixtures of pre-formulated colours, this kind of organization would be impossible. My approach also allows me to see gaps in between formulas, ensuring that I've a continuous selection all over the color wheel inside each tier.

It is also easier to find colors that are in between colors My partner and i already have. For instance, should i be studying two doldrums and I want to find the color in between, busting the difference in the method will nearly always produce the color I want, provided I start with a couple of colors that are fairly similar. Sometimes it will take two stabs to get the formulation right, but that is typically all it takes. By expressing all formulas inside the same simple terms (three colors, in rates), we reduce a mysterious formula to a numerical equation, rather than an educated guess.

GOING METRIC Like most of us, I will be accustomed to using Language measurements, and when I actually do anything else I still use cups, meters, pounds, teaspoons and all the remainder. But when I started dyeing made of woll, I felt a great need to eliminate as many variables as I might. So I took a massive breath and turned my mindset, in which the Wool is concerned, to using metric measurement regarding everything, despite my previous reluctance to do this somewhere else in my life. I am so glad I did so. Honestly, using the statistic system makes the math easy to manage once you are accustomed to it, rather than beyond the average person together with basic math expertise.

The great beauty of the metric system is in which 1 ml associated with water weighs One gram, so liquid measure and dried out measure can be treated since equal for wool-dyeing reasons. This principle is totally key to everything 1 does when using this method. You can relate the actual gram weight regarding dye powder equally to the ml way of measuring of water when making dyestock, and you can relate the actual gram weight with the wool equally for the amount of ml inside the dyestock, when choosing a value to get a color.

For instance, My partner and i mix 1 g of dye together with 99 ml of water, creating 100 ml of a '1% remedy dyestock'. Because 1 milliliter of water weighs in at 1 gram, this particular 1/99 ratio of coloring to water is actually mathematically accurate and easy to quantify. I help to make 1% dyestock for each primary, as well as store it all in milk jugs. Therefore remember:

1 gram dye powder + Ninety nine ml water Equals a 1% dyestock solution
Making use of PERCENTAGE-BASED FORMULAS Now I'm will make you think a little tougher. You'd better go get yourself a cup of coffee!

In addition to adopting the metric program, I continued standardizing my personal methods by making all formulas within percentages, rather than teaspoon fractions. This creates a 'universal' formula that will perform, regardless of the size piece being dyed. As an example, if I am using a formulation that is 90% red and 10% yellow, that portion will remain constant for any piece I coloring. Since every method, no matter who causes it to be, is ultimately a mathematical equation, whether it is rendered in proportions or 1/16 teaspoons - employed in percentages broadens you skill to apply that formulation in any circumstance.

I additionally use percentage way of measuring to determine how much dyestock to make use of to produce the value I would like shaw area rugs. It is generally recognized that 1% dye for the weight of the made of wool will produce a method value for most colours, and it is also well-known in which doubling the amount of coloring on the wool together with each value generates a gradation that takes the color from light to dark in 6-8 jumps (this really is, in effect, what the 'jar method' achieves). So one wise decision for producing Half a dozen values, (working to the outside from the medium benefit at 1%) is to use: . 125%, . 25%, . 5%, 1%, 2%, and also 4% (although 3% produces a shade nearly as darkish, with less color). Some time spent trialing ideals will give you a further advancement that you like, and this progression will work for most shade formulas that you use, except, perhaps, formulas which can be mostly yellow -- a slightly more saturated progression is needed right now there.

Once I know what formula I want to use, and also what value I want to make it, the only staying question is how much of the total formula to mix upwards, and I determine this simply by weighing the made of wool to be dyed, as well as doing some basic information Area Rugs. Follow me through a sample calculation, to see if you can make sense of it:.

Let's say I have A hundred grams of made of wool (about yard), and that i want to dye this to a medium value in a 90% red / 10% yellow formula. Since a 1% ratio associated with dye-to-wool produces a medium value, and I already make use of a 1% dyestock solution, equal areas of dyestock and wool may, therefore, produce the actual medium value that I want, since A hundred ml of 1% dyestock may deposit 1% dye to the wool. Once I know that I need 100 ml of dyestock, I grow that amount times the percentages inside the formula. So I will certainly mix 90 cubic centimeters red and 12 ml yellow with this example.

Here is another instance, for dyeing 300g wool to some dark value with a 3% dye factor, utilizing a formula containing 70% reddish / 10% yellow Or 20% blue:

300g (wool) X 3 (dye element) = 900 milliliter dyestock
70% X 900 Equals 630ml red 10% X Nine hundred = 90ml yellow 20% X 900 = 180ml azure

(Notice that we don't increase the weight of the wool by 3 percent, however by 3. It is because the percentage symbol conveys the amount of dye powder as a percentage of the dyestock that we need to get the worth we want, but in the actual equation we are determining the amount of dyestock itself to use, which is exactly A hundred times the amount of coloring itself. Using percent in the equation would certainly divide the final response by 100, which may be incorrect. So dropping the percent sign and using the number alone is simply a quick way to getting the correct response.)

Have you heard the adage, "Give a man a seafood and you feed him or her for a day. Educate a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" This is, basically, what I am doing. Rather than saying, "here is really a formula that will dye 1 yard of wool", I am showing you ways to assemble boiler-plate formulas and also equations that will take you anywhere you want to go whenever dyeing, and with relative ease once you are used to that. Don't let the math frighten you - it's all regulated stuff we realized in the fifth level, and you ARE smarter than a fifth grader!

I could go into more detail the following (in fact there will be a magazine on this sometime in the near future) but for now I am just giving you the gist of the method. I will offer more help in potential articles, so stay tuned in!
THE BENEFITS OF USING LIQUID DYESTOCK Liquid dyestock is, without a doubt, the most convenient method to dye wool. Even if you use pre-formulated colors, maintaining dyestock in the colors you use most will accelerate your dyeing -- you can head into the kitchen and dye a few pieces very easily. One of the great benefits of this method is that you'll require only produce dyestock from time to time, if you produce a honest quantity. For instance, A single,000 ml of dyestock will dye One,000 grams (about 2 1/2 yards) of wool to a medium value, so if you produce 3,000 ml of each and every primary, (nearly the gallon) this will carry you through a fairly huge project, or numerous smaller ones, although you may dye all your very own wool. Once produced, your dyestock will keep for a long period. Dyestock will, theoretically, last indefinitely, given the quality and sterility of the water you use, but for practical purposes, ProChem says it's going to last a minimum of Half a year. If you dye regularly, there is not much threat of wasting a lot of dyestock.

Using liquid dyestock will give you the kind of control needed to dye small items with accuracy. Employing a 1-ml syringe (the type utilized to deliver insulin) makes this possible. And when using several colors to produce a formula, small nuances in strengthen can be made. For instance, whites are very, very difficult in order to formulate with accuracy, because tiny changes in the red and blue of a yellow-colored formula produce remarkable results. Working in declines, however, these great changes are quite achievable, in fact there is a expected mathematical progression of formulas in yellow that creates everything from near-green to near-orange, and every nuance in between.

Contrary to what you are able think initially, I've found this method to be a clean way to dye, especially when the dye powdered (nasty, messy products, in my opinion) spends most of the time in the cupboard. I use various-sized syringes and tiny graduated pitchers to distribute dyestock. Because the dyestock that I me is dilute, spills rarely cause a stain if I wipe them swiftly, even on my oiled oak floors as well as birch countertops. I use screw-top covers to store dyestock, and keep the particular lids screwed on when not in use, and I pour larger amounts of dyestock on the sink to avoid large accidents.
A FEW CAVEATS While using three primaries does have the limitations, but they are few. I have formulated numerous browns and shades of black using the three primaries, however, these colors are more difficult to produce. A lot of stirring is required, as well as the use of Glauber's salt obligatory to produce any kind of even result. Even then, your results may vary coming from batch-to-batch. If you are more restless about your outcomes, you may prefer to use pre-formulated browns and blacks, and add a tiny of the primaries to adjust them.

I use ProChem dyes, and possess yet to experiment with other brands, although I will guess that even if the overall results vary from ProChem fabric dyes, those brands might still behave naturally, using the same methods.

I hope this inspires you to try this method, which has worked so well for me. This is actually the first in a group of articles on the subject, and in future articles I will provide more fine detail about the methods I personally use, including equipment (together with resources), working in percentages, setting up mathematical progressions associated with color formulas, how to trial color samples, and the care and feeding of your dyestock.

To see the results of my personal many color studies, and the four sections of color that I work in, (all colors made using the three primaries), check out me: