Dyepot PS #4 - Dyeing Yarn with Red Cabbage
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ส.ค. 2024
- Join me as I try to dye fiber with red cabbage for the first time! The color you extract from red cabbage is a pH indicator, and the color will shift depending on if you make the solution more basic or more acidic. Let's have fun and play with this interesting natural dye.
The yarn that took the most color were some bare yarn from KnitPicks. Wool of the Andes Worsted, Swish DK, and Stroll Fingering. You can find these yarns here shrsl.com/k9bg (KnitPicks Affiliate Link)
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VIDEO CONTENTS:
[0:00] Introduction
[2:41] Extracting the color from the red cabbage: I chopped up half the cabbage and simmered it in 12 cups of tap water. (I did this in two batches to make it a bit more concentrated and to use the rest of the red cabbage head. However this happens at a later timepoint)
[6:05] after ~10 min the water is simmering, reduce the heat and stir. Checking in on the color.
[7:02] After simmering for 20 min, removing the first batch of cabbage
[7:43] Adding the second half of the cabbage head (chopped) with NO additional water. let it heat for another 25 min.
[9:38] The 25 min are up, removing all of the cabbage and seeing if we extracted more color
[10:10] Comparing batches
[10:53] Color shifting the red cabbage with acid (white vinegar) and base (baking soda)
[12:48] Setting up 3 dyepots: 4 cups of red cabbage juice to two pots. Acid Bath: 2 T white vinegar + 1 cup water; Base Bath: 1.5 tsp baking soda + 1 cup water. Add the presoaked fibers to both. I decided to wind some more miniskeins to dye a third sample
[16:22] Closeups and Patreon Shout Outs
[18:07] Dyebath #3 of "neutral" dyebath (purple): just under 2 cups cabbage juice + 3 cups of water. This is more dillute than the other dyebaths but might give us another hue.
Turn off the heat from the orginal 2 pots after heating for 20+ min. Heat the new purple pot for 25 min to bring it to where the other two were. (Each of them heated at a low simmer for 20 min after bringing up to temp for 5)
[20:35] Turning off the heat from the purple pot.
[21:38] removing the cooled fiber from the pots to prepare for washing
[24:14] Washing the yarn and shirts by hand
[33:37] The finished dried yarns and conclusions
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To me Rebecca this was your absolute best vlog to date. Not only fabulous interesting results but your presentation was also excellent. You have grown very much as far as keepin me interested and also presenting in a way that isnt annoying or bothersome. I love the yarns. It was so very very interesting to watch how the colors shifted, the rinse waters turned different shades too. It just leaves me wanting to dye more with natural implements now. I love your videos. You are the best.
Oh Marlene, Thank you so much for this comment!
my mom used to dye with natural dyes . they have to be left longer . she would put tshirts in sometimes up to 3 days to get better pay off
I think that without additional mordants longer periods of time would absolutely pay off. :D
Those wools came out with beautiful colors
I wish that the colors stayed longer!
I'm researching Dark Ages clothing, so that's why I care a lot about natural dyes that would have been available to common people. Apparently red cabbage is a fragile dye, but it holds better if you mordant the fabric with iron rust water, and then you just try really hard never to wash it. Also, while preparing the dye you want to keep heat at a minimum since high heat will break it down. Someone suggested even extracting the dye from cold water soaking the cabbage overnight. I might try pouring boiling water over the cabbage, but then letting it soak overnight on the countertop. Wool seems pretty resistant to cabbage dye for some reason, but I'd love to see linen tested, since that was a common fabric then.
I'm also interested to see whether a faded dyed garment can be refreshed by redying it. I'm thinking of a medieval peasant with only one garment to wear, and they'd like it to have pretty color but can't afford expensive imported dyes like indigo or turmeric or cochneal, so they have to try hard to make do with whatever they can grow themselves. They would have good reason to really work hard to keep any garment in wearable condition for as long as possible, since every scrap of fabric was precious when you're spinning the thread, weaving the cloth, and sewing every stitch of the garment yourself.
Marialla, this is so interesting! I plan to play around with mordants and some of these natural dyes again this summer. I wanted to start off seeing how much color we could get with no mordant so then we could (maybe) be blown away later. Red cabbage is a fugitive dye, so it will fade more over time especially compared to some of the other natural dyes I've tried. Onions seems to be one of the best I've tried so far.
@@ChemKnitsTutorials Yes, I've had good success dying with onions too. I once dyed some polyester clothing with onionskins, and even years later after many washings it still had color! The color did fade over time, but it was definitely still there. My color came out a warm yellowish brown, which was not surprising as the onion skins I used had a very brownish color. I was thinking sometime to try picking only the brightest yellow onion skins and see whether that could help the color be brighter yellow.
I love seeing how different fibers absorb color differently in your experiments. I know in medieval days since color was so expensive and natural dyes faded so quickly, only the brightest colors were considered good enough for the ruling classes. Anything faded, pastel, or brownish/muddy/"natural" looking colors would have been good enough only for the peasant class. And yet how hard they would have worked to get even those basic natural colors to use! Plain white garments were unthinkable, except as underwear, as they would show dirt too easily. And they didn't have washing machines and detergent! Your only laundry was beating it in a river on a rock! Maybe a little soapwort or ammonia for the grease spots. So yeah. Linen undergarments absorbed all body oil and smell, and aprons absorbed all splash damage from cooking or whatever, and the beautiful dyed overdress in between was protected and kept sacred so it wouldn't need washing if possible.
I think about this a lot as I'm using these dyes. I think that at some point rusty nails or other items were likely used as a mordant to help with the dyeing process. Things likely weren't washed that frequently, which probably helped, too.
Marialla hi there I read your comments and it’s interesting information. I can tell your quite passionate about this subject and so good to find likeminded people. For myself I’ve been on a natural dye journey for a few years. Because of the often fragile and unpredictable nature of harvesting wild colors I’ve discovered that it really takes a resilient personality to preserver in the natural dyers journey. That being said, I can tell you I’ve experimented and have tried using purple cabbage - the problem is that even if you use natural fibers such as linen, cotton, wool or even silk it has very low staying power. The purple pigment or blue pigments (color shifts) is highly unstable once it’s washed (even with the very gentle laundry soap) it fades quite rapidly and/or it fades and changes color to a faded green or muddy green. This is the reason why many experienced dyers don’t bother with purple cabbage as a solid source of dye color. Also adding a mordant such as iron won’t really fix the purple cabbage dye to fibers (only temporary) iron saddens or darkens colors sometimes even shifting color to greys and blacks etc the color that will come out with an iron mordant will most likely be the iron itself (as iron or rust is a dye in itself). This is probably why it wasn’t usually used with past dyersIt’s great for novelty or perhaps introducing kids to natural non toxic dyeing with foods.
Very interesting results. I kind of love the green hue.
Thank you!
I’m so fascinated with the pH levels of these food dyes even before the fibres went into the dye baths. A great way to play around with the colours from just a red cabbage. I’m interested in the use of beetroot. Thanks again for your video!
This was so cool! Thanks for trying this experiment!
My pleasure!
Wow! Amazing episode. I have dyed before with red cabbage, but never thought to add a base or an acid. Thanks.
You're very welcome! I wish the colors had some more oomph, but this was still so much fun to play with!
Oh, what a Girl Scout meeting this would be!!! LOVE!
It would be so fun!
I have used red cabbage for a 24 hour Easter egg dye for the most gorgeous blue shade I have ever seen. If my wool would take that same color it would be a win for sure.
I should absolutely try to leave the fiber in the pot longer..... Hmmmm....
If you were doing multiple batches, you'd firstly reboil your used cabbages to get the rest of the pigment out of them, and then cook up a fresh cabbage in that lightly-dyed water.
If you were a mediaeval peasant trying to look like you could afford decent dyes when you couldn't, you'd be boiling up cabbages and re-dying your outer garments pretty regularly, and hanging them indoors to dry *without* rinsing out the excess dye each time. It's a good thing you could still eat the cabbages afterwards!
Fascinating!
Thank you!
Reminds me of Lilacs in early Summer 😊💜
I loved watching this! Thank you and the results were quite a surprise to me, that the cotton didn’t hold much at all.
I loved how the wool turned out, I wonder how much that would fade over time.
This made me think about other foods that could be used as a dye like beetroot, I’ll have to check your other videos now 😁
I've done some beets, but I think I need to try them again to tweak the conditions. Check out the black beans video (the one with mordant vs. no mordant.) those results are AWESOME! :D
That ph test was SO COOL!
I'm so bummed the color didn't stick in the yarn, but the color changing in the liquid is SO FUN!
all your jobs are nice
I will be using this for paper dying. I think it will be great for journaling. Thank you!
Ooo I hope it turns out well!
Thank you so much for this video,i just got my red cabbage and now i am going to be dying my yarn yaaaay !!!!!
Good luck!
thank you!!!!
This was fascinating. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much for watching!
Stewed cabbage is so yummy and i always save the liquid to dye with!
❤️❤️❤️ love love love you!
Awe, you're so sweet.
I was thinking of boiling some beets to dye a skein of white yarn. I got the idea when I drained the remaining juice from a jar of beets not too long ago. The color is rich/vibrant and definitely has some staying power because I still can't get the stain out of my green shirt. I'm sure it would work out nicely.
I've seen people get a really nice color from beets. I'm not sure how stable it is, since like red cabbage I've heard that it will fade over time, but it is definitely on my list! I LOVE beets and haven't made them in a long time.
This was both interesting and fun. The color changes made me think of azalea bushes, and hoe you can change their colors...blue or pink.
I haven't done a lot of dyeing withe flowers, but I plan to play with some of my Forsythia and Lilac when the bushes bloom this year. (Mine are more like trees - HUGE! they need a lot of pruning, so I should be able to look at flowers and bark.)
I love your enthusiasm!!!
Thank you so much!
Interesting video using cabbage the way you did. You can also use beets. Beets have been used for a long time for dying various shades of reds. I like using vinegar dyes like dying Easter eggs! There are quite a few fruits and vegetables that could be used in dying just take testing and practicing. I always do test dying before I go dye a whole bunch.BTW vinegar is the acid that makes your dying permanent. Thank you for sharing and maybe do videos for others using other types of fruits and vegetables.
I love the three colors you dyed with just from the Red Cabbage. I agree this would be a fun project to do with kids. But I have to say it is also a fun project to do with other adults that have never seen this done and are interested in Science type things. Wow, the ending colors weren't what I was expecting. Still pretty though. I find this to be such an interesting experiment. Thank you for sharing this with us. It has been lots of fun to watch.
Oh it is also absolutely fun to do with adults! I want to play with this some more myself! I just knew that the color changes were something that would blow my kids minds a bit. :D I was expecting some more color to come up in the cotton, and was amazed how much that faded as it dried.
ChemKnits Tutorials I'm glad you agree with me at it being something fun to do with adults as well. It blew my mind. So I'm sure it will blow your kids minds as well. That was interesting to see what the color stayed on and faded from as it dried for me while watching as well. I can't wait to see you play around with Red Cabbage more and how it turns out 😁
I'm absolutely going to play with this again. I was BLOWN away that the colors were really so different! :D
Interesting!🤗
Thank you!
Loving these 💜⭐💜😏
💜⭐💜⭐⭐😊
Thank you so much!
Thanks for playing with cabbage, I've always been curious about the pH effect of baking soda when dyeing!
I know I'm late to the party here, only just found your channel, but I've done some experiments with anthocyanin dyeing (wild grapes, not cabbage, but it's the same chemical and has the same nifty litmus paper thing going on and when I do my Easter eggs ( I have used both and they react the same) and though I didn't mess with baking soda on fabric (it turns out not to matter with eggs, egg s and shells are basic and go blue no matter how much vinegar I added, even directly to the dyed shell it will inevitably swing back to blue).
I tried swatches of cotton twill and labelled them all with sharpie whether it was heated or non, salt or no, vinegar or no so I had every combination, plus a long soak and a short soak (which I did after the long soak ones came out so dark purple I couldn't read my sharpie notes on the fabric) and they all started out a lovely deep purple . I tossed some wool I'd brushed out of my sheepskin into each basic dyepot and it didn't take much dye at all, everything rinsed out immediately so I didn't bother with the salt and vinegar experiments, I hadn't researched nordants then). l rinsed everything till it ran clear and let things dry, still couldn't read the sharpie on the deep purple ones, so I stacked them all together and forgot about them in the bottom of one of my sewing bags for a year or two. No washing, no handling, no sun exposure, and have all the samples in front of me now. They have faded significantly, I can easily read the sharpie on all of them (it was grey not black sharpie) the fulll- exposure samples are a faintly purplish tan and the half-exposure ones are barely beige right now, maybe a similar intensity to how the half-exposure samples originally wre, but more brownish and less purple..
The unheated ones fared better than the cooked perparation, and the ones that had salt are just a hint darker than the ones without, and the vinegar made no difference at all in the longer exposure ones but the uncooked half-exposure samples do show a bit darker on the vinegar ones.
Soooo sad that all of those wonderful bright colors rinced out😭
💜💙💚💛🧡❤
I was SO excited and then so bummed. BUT I had so much fun playing with the shifting color that Ilook back on this one super fondly.
If you were to do this again it'd be interesting if you presoaked the skiens in baking soda water on one end and vinegar on the other and then hand painted.
OOOOOOO!!!!!! Great idea. (It might be a bit easier for me to have two pots and dip the yarn into both a the same time... but still I love love love the idea.)
I wonder how it would work with the bagged pre-chopped red cabbage coleslaw? Finer chopping might result in even better colorant extraction...it could be also that the color shift you are seeing between the two batches could be from a natural alkalinity in the tap water.
The only reason I thought of it was because my siblings and I threw mulberries at each as kids and it stained our clothes. Especially my brothers white t-shirts.
That is always a good sign (if you want to use something to dye with, that is.)
Cherries also stain the clothes
Oh I was so sad to see all that color wash away. I am really looking forward to see how mordants effect the colorfastness.
I think mordants could help with the initial colorfastness, but they won't help with the long term colorfastness. For short term applications (and fun home science projects with kids) this is great.
I tried this and due to being busy couldnt get my yarn dyed so it sat for a few days ... with the cabbage still in the pot ... . and boy it became richer in colour a LOT!!
Good to know! One thing ancient people had plenty of was time. Makes sense to invest it in deeper colors.
that might be akin to the "fermenting" of cacti flower and beets that I read recently. The ancients would "ferment" those juices. Maybe aging, is fermenting? I am going to try that.
this might be a good time to use my instant pot pressure cooker for the vegie dyes ... my hydrangea bush needs alkaline soil amendment to come out pink; otherwise florida high acid soil = blue or green flowers i think the alkali mordant of some form of alum like aluminum sulfite, sulfate is needed as fixative; aluminum acetate is the best alum mordant for cotton and linen, according to Jim Liles book, The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use, Pre-soak in mordant then dye. This came from Paula Burch website of high detailed info. I bought the alum stuff at the pool store and it worked for dyeing with loquat leaves, and eucalyptus leaves. For me the colors are so faint that uou cannot easily mix them with other colors that are not cellulose vegetal dyes because of the "value" so unique ... and they all knit up a great vintage look, Makes you want to knit camisoles and undies and pantaloons and baby clothes!
Lisa R - isn’t it ironic , if you were to accidentally get any of this on your favorite white wool slacks .... it would remain a vibrant stain forever ! I’m trying marigolds using alum & cream of tartar presoak . Great fun watching your experiments - Thank you !
Thank you so much for watching!
Ha hubby just gave a idea how about cherries dye with because hand s get dye with them. From jodie
I haven't tried a lot of fruit... yet. I hope to at some point!
If you did this experiment again you should try and see if adding salt to the cabbage for 30-60 mind before hand will make a difference in the extracted dye after boiling. Adding salt helps to bring out moisture and soften the cabbage but im curious if it would make any different to the dye itself. I found your videos this morning and have been binge watching since 5am, good work
Interesting! I definitely want to try mordants, but salt is something that can absolutely have an affect on dye absorption etc.
What a great range you ended up with on the wool! Do you think they would still be susceptible to changing colors if soaked in different pH water? (I'm wondering about combining them and then washing the finished product, just to have the whole thing change!) Also, as a side note, I once made a frittata with purple cabbage, and the eggs came out the most beautiful startling turquoise - somewhat disconcerting to eat.
** did you mordant with alum?** I have been dying with pokeweed berries. Interesting have to keep water hot but not too hot or you lose the purple/pink colors. Spiderwort are also another plant that makes great dye. There are several books out on using natural dye
You could make a gradient with the red cabbage, you could put vinegar on one end of the yarn and the bicarbonate soda on the other end of the yarn and the middle would take up some of the ends, it would be interesting to see what happens. Would you get the same results? Or something completely different to your first test
This would be so fun!
Try urias to set the color. To keep the pink add a little vinegar to the rinse water.
Thank you for sharing this experiment! I wonder if the soap used in the rinse was turning things blue?
It looked like it was the water before I even added the soap. I didn't use pH paper to test the pH at different stages, so I don't know for sure.
I think it was the contact with air that made the change like in indigo dyeing
@@ChemKnitsTutorials I seem to remember that most soaps tend to be basic.
When you are dyeing with some lichens and murex, the colours change from blue to pink depending on if they are dried in the sun or shade. (Speaking from experience)
This sounds awesome! did you harvest them yourself or purchase them somewhere?
I gathered the lichen locally but bought the murex powder. Horrendously expensive so could only do a small amount. I think the lichen was Xanthoria Parietina. I used to grow my own woad and madder. Weld grows locally too.
I was very interested in this. I've tried dying with red cabbage in the past (using alum as a mordant) and didn't get a good result. Like your cotton, my wool ended up with almost no color. It was just the palest grey but I also didn't use the full cabbage so there probably just wasn't enough dye molecules available. In any case I really wanted to see if the different hues would stick around or if they would change back when washed. It's very interesting that the pink on the shirt did stay pink for the most part but that the huge changed where water seemed to have pooled during drying. I also wonder if part of the reason the pink did end up with a more saturated color is because of the acid. A lot of dyes need acid to bind as you know so it could be a factor. But then again Alum is acidic and I got almost no color in my attempt but the color I did have was fast and I didn't get a noticeable fading over time and it wasn't patchy in color from how it dried. I had the fiber in my stash for a few years before I blended it with another fiber for spinning and it stayed the same pale grey. Of course I didn't repeatedly wash it so maybe that isn't a reliable observation.
I think I would like to try dying with red cabbage again sometime. Perhaps pureeing it to get as much of the dye out as possible, using a lot more alum, and letting it sit in solution for a day or even 2 to give it the best possible chance of getting the most color to bind. It might just also take layering the color multiple times to get something vibrant but that might be 4 heads of cabbage for one skein of yarn. As an experiment it would be interesting too to dye a skein of yarn in an acidic bath and then after its washed, lay one end in a baking soda solution overnight to see if there is a color change. It that worked you could make a garment that could change color depending on the ph of the wash soak.
cabbage is not a permanent dye. it's called fugitive and does not keep its colour.
Instead of doubling down on the alum, I suggest trying iron mordant. I've heard they used to leave some iron nails covered in some water with maybe a tablespoon of vinegar, and when the water got really gross and rusty, that was added to a red cabbage dye bath. Somehow iron reacts better with red cabbage than many other things.
@@Marialla. Hi Marialla, you can get colours from cabbage and even change them but over time, they will sadly fade no matter what mordant. I dye not just to see what colours I can get as a fun experiment, but for longevity. I want the colour to last. It doesn't with cabbage and beetroot yet somehow, it you spill beetroot on your clothes, it can stain. hahahahahah!
@@ludouglas1 I agree that for long-lasting color you are better off with modern dyes. My interest in vegetable dyes has to do with researching medieval clothing. The fact that it does fade makes me wonder how they might have minimized that effect, or made best use of the color while it was still brightest, and perhaps redyed the same garment after it faded.
I guess it has to do with availability. I don't know how long you can keep red cabbage in a root cellar, or whether you can use a preserved form like red cabbage sauerkraut as a dye. But if red cabbage dye was only available during "fresh cabbage" months, then a medieval peasant would have to be extremely careful with their garment to keep the color as long as possible!
I know the color fades with every wash. Does it also fade just over time, or due to sun or air exposure?
@@Marialla. My guess is that woolen clothing was not washed often in Medieval times. Even today some people just hang their woolens outside overnight to freshen them. I dyed some Merino with Poke berries. The brilliant fuchsia color did not fade with time but the yarn knitted into socks has faded to a light pink with washing and use. Also, one skein was hand spun superwash and the other was plain Merino. The superwash definitely took on more color and held onto it longer with wear.
This is excellent...have you tired using kale?if so I wold be very interested.thanks
I haven't! Does a lot of pigment come out of Kale? Now I'm curious...I normally don't boil Kale for anything (i typically eat it raw) so I'll have to explore.
This is very interesting. I eco-dye papers and laces and ribbons. So I don't have to rinse it afterwards.
It would have been so lovely if I didn't need to wash it! :D Since items made with yarn are usually washed it would be a shame for the color to all come out later on.
Is your tap water well water or city water which has chlorine and well water has different mineral content. Wonder if there would be any difference by using distilled water?
My tap water is city water. I'm not sure the mineral content, but I do know it runs slightly acidic. I think that distilled water could definitely shift the results, but it might not be dramatic.
I thought hand prints on the T-shirts would be fun' like dipping your hand in a solution opposite of what the shirt was dyed with and leaving a hand-print. But when it all changed colors during the wash that didn't seem like it would work. Maybe with the mordants and different planning.
The hand print idea with mordants could be fun! (As long as you're wearing gloves for the mordant part.!) Someone had a fun idea of trying to get two colors on yarn by soaking part of the yarn in acid and part in a base. I have some ideas for the future. :D
Really interesting that red cabbage is like litmus paper! I have tried dying with plants and usually it washes out like yours did. I just watched another TH-camr who used alum n cream of tartar and it reall made a difference. Turmeric had excellent dye results for me. It turned out a very rich gooden color on a cotton sheet and hasn't lost any of its color without any mordant. Thanks for sharing.
Oh yes, alum mordants can make a huge difference. I decided to try a lot of these kitchen items without any mordants first to see what kinds of color we could get. :D Onions work GREAT and I am super excited to share that video soon.
ChemKnits Tutorials I am looking for natural colors to use in limestone plaster I made last year and has been aging. From what I gather it is very difficult to get color in alkaline conditions. I believe lime plaster is 12 pH.
ChemKnits Tutorials maybe red cabbage is an option I will experiment with.
I found using a pressure cooker and cleaning vinegar works better for dying acrylic or polyester
Oh interesting! I would probably only want to do that in a dedicated dye pot. Synthetics do best with dyes intended for synthetics versus natural dyes, anyway. They're in there for some controls. :D
Interesting. Does Beetroot fade quickly, do you know? Any hints for keeping the colour over time ? Presumably natural food dyes need to be handwashed with mild soap ?
I think beets also fade quickly. The longevity of the dye varies a lot on the source. Indigo lasts centuries, where other colors might fade.
I would like to see how bright the colors would be using the undiluted cabbage water
Sure! I think that the colors would get more intense with a mordant, too.
@SunnyEyes - I think that making a reduction of the cabbage water to concentrate it might be helpful.
How about trying beets, spinach, marigolds or black-eyed susan petals? Cherries and raspberries stain nicely, too.
I think next on my list is onion skins. I also want to do rhubarb again (that video is coming out soon!)
My uncle did Easter eggs with onion skins. The colors were amazing. I look forward to this one. :)
ChemKnits Tutorials watching your videos and other podcasts related to knitting, crafts and food prep has become a comfort to me since I lost my husband to cancer the day before Father's Day this year. I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
IMP Mulcahy - I am so sorry for your loss. I wish your family a lot of love and light. I am glad that you enjoy the videos and that I can provide some comfort.
Have you tried beats?
Also, video idea, compare mordants/fixatives during natural dyeing! Could be cool.
I have, but the results were a bit underwhelming. th-cam.com/video/5CUMuJFY440/w-d-xo.html
I love the idea of using different mordants someday, but at the moment I'm most comfortable using Alum. Some mordants are a bit harder to dispose of so I'm not sure if I will try them myself.
If you left them in the dye pots longer, would the colors be deeper?
Not really. Red cabbage is a fugative dye so it won't stay around too long. Maybe you could get more saturation with a mordant, but I'm not entirely sure.
This is wonderful! So interesting, entertaining and inspiring.
Have you ever dyed with beetroots?(Not sure what you call them there - table beets, garden beets?)
I have tried beets, I think both yellow and red. I wasn't that impressed - yellow onion skins are some of the coolest and easiest natural dyes to work with.
What would happen if I add vinegar or citric acid here when it's steaming? Thanks Mari 💜⭐
Well I wasn't steaming it as much as I cooked it in the strainer to make it easier to remove. I'm honestly not sure!
From my experience you should only use natural fibers (cotton, wool, linen, etc.) to dye with natural dyes. I use salt as a mordant. Coarse salt is what works best for me. I just eyeball it and leave it over night.
The synthetic fibers were present mainly as a control to see what if anything happened. I absolutely wasn't excepting any real results on those.
I wonder why (I have no experience with dyeing stuff naturally) the cabbage is boiled. Could it be juiced and let the yarn be soaked in just the juice (and perhaps the pulp), since a lot of fruits, vegetables etc stain clothes so vigorous when they are raw? I would most definitely let it set for a couple of days so it would really have time to be absorbed in the fiber. Comparing it with stains that have dried in clothes till washing them. Berries, cherries, grasses etc.
Yes, I am curious about using the fruit or vegetable raw and juiced and its effects.
Oh this is a super interesting thought! I'm not sure... Hmmmmm......
When I did Black Beans I didn't boil it, I just let it soak. I have a lot to think about for sure!
HI REBECCA, HOW DO YOU DYE COTTON.. LOVELY DEEP N RICH COLORS?
Hi Kathleen, there are many different ways to dye cotton yarns. I have a whole playlist of videos that I've done with cotton. th-cam.com/play/PLFvm3Bz7dhaWgsthkBEafNoljTWJLn5cY.html One of the easiest ways is to get some tie dye kits from a local craft store to get some deep brilliant colors.
How do you make your mini skeins?
I wound them onto a PVC pipe niddy noddy, but you can also wind them onto the back of a chair.
Do the colors set as if you are using acid dye? do they wash out?
These don't work like acid dyes, and most of the pigment does wash out. Red cabbage is a "fugative" dye in that it will fade over time (from what I've read.) I did get some color on the superwash wools, bt it was far less pigmented than what we saw before washing.
Is it possible your dish soap was alkali and shifted the colour slightly on the neutral and acidic solutions?
It is certainly possible, but I think it could be the water itself. I'm going ot play around with this more (and check the pH next time) to see. :D
Could you find a different way so not to waste soo much water ?
Mordant wich one would you use?
Very interesting.
Did you put the yarn in just water or with some acid?
The yarn presoaked in just plain tap water. During the dyeing itself, one pot had just water, one water + vinegar, and one water + baking soda. (I should have more details on this in the video description)
Is there a chemical that needs to be put in to prevent the colour from fading or being washed off?
A mordant may help the colors stick to the yarn, but it won't preven the fading. The colors will fade due to the instability of the pigment itself. (The molecule just degrades over time, likely with exposure to light.)
Every teacher I have ever had insists that each fiber needs a mordant pre dying in order for it to keep the color after washing. I don't know if that is right but that is what I would and do...... always do. Salt, Cream of tartar, alum... those are not harmful agents.
I plan to play with mordants outside this summer. I wanted to see what would happen without to see if it would be fun to do with my kids etc. 😀
I'm not the biggest fan of green (made funnier since i live in the evergreen state). But i like the greens that you got.
I was really surprised since the liquid started out blue! It definitely converted to a green over time for me.
Chemknits what about butterfly flower tea
I've never tried that kind of tea before, but I'm sure you could get some pigment.
Did you wash the shirts first❓
I'm not 100% certain, but I believe so. I have a stash of pre-washed tshirts that I use to make things last minute for my kids. But the prewash wasn't super recent.
Can we put baking powder ?
Potentially, but I would be careful as conditions that are too alkaline can damage wool.
I think that perhaps the detergent changed the ph level that causes the color change.
That is to say during the rinse cycle.
Maybe, but it was also just my tap water. The colors were changing just in contact with the tap.
That is so neet
Thank you so much!
Sea Green Beachy
What about red beets?
I think that those will give a lovely pink, but I've heard that it will fade over time. it is absolutely on my list to test out, though! ;)
Vegans will Love this I'm Vegan it's nice 😊
I'm so glad that I can share things that work for vegans!
The reason your purple turned blue is that your soap seemed to be a basic soap instead of a PH neutral soap
This is very possible. My tap water runs slightly acidic, but I haven't checked the pH with soap before.
@@ChemKnitsTutorials it's ok lol, I didn't even know that ph neutral soap existed until yesterday
Have you done eny new videos hope all s. Well whats new
I haven't done a new video on Red cabbage, no.
Someone should try mulberries to use for dye
I haven't tried many berries (or any berries really) yet. This is a fun idea, though!
I love mulberries! I remember eating them as a child, and having my hands and clothing stained deep purple afterwards. I haven't had one in forty years, but I can still remember their tart and sweet and syrupy smell!
My mum has some mulberry trees so I’m going to try them next season. But I’m about to try out some pomegranates which I’m really excited about
I would shred the cabbage to get even more out of it
That could help! I might use a larger pot next time, too. :D
Why dont you eat the cabbage
Wow
Sad that the boiled cabbage was tossed out. It is a great food source and makes a tasty soup, egg rolls etc...
Did you know that the colour from cabbage or beets is fugitive and will fade with sun exposure? It is a lot of time and effort for not.
Yes, I am aware that these are fugitive dyes and will fade with time. It is a fair amount of effort, but if you enjoy the process then it can be fun to try out. I know that I loved seeing the red cabbage change colors, even if the final yarn colors were a tad bit underwhelming (compared to the vibrancy of the solution). It is a nice home science project to do with kids without any mordants. With mordants the colors would be more saturated, but still would fade with time.
@@ChemKnitsTutorials Hi Rebecca, I've been part of the Master Spinner's program at Olds and each level has a fairly extensive dye module to do. I haven't been able to dye fiber or yarn for fun for about 5 years since the homework for the program is so intense(not just dye assignments). I have learned a lot but it has given me a bit of a jaundiced view on dyeing and I hope when I finish the program that I can just have fun with yarn, fiber and dye. I do enjoy your unabashed enthusiasm for your different dye projects. Cheers, Laura
Wow that program sounds intense! I am very thankful that I have this platform that allows me to just randomly play with fiber, colors, and dyes. I'm so glad you enjoy my enthusiasm! I truly enjoy what I do. :D
How didyou decide on 25 minutes of simmering?
Great question.... and I don't really know. :D I just decided that was a good starting number and there was tons of color in the pot after that period of time.
you should have let it dry first before rinsing
Interesting, I've never tried that before. Thanks for the suggestion!
The baking soda causes the solution to be alkaline not basic..
Since baking soda raises the pH, it is making the solution more basic.
@@ChemKnitsTutorials ya I thought it was cute that you referred to it as basic since you pointed out that the other was acidic or (elaborate) "not basic".Just clarifying the compositions between the 2 and why the different results, some ppl might want to understand why. :-)
I find the onions did far better.
Oh yes, the onions did WAY better. This one was so sad when it rinsed out.
Even with mordants the colour of red cabbage and beets and black beans and many other spices and fruit and vege people use on TH-cam show, do not stay stable. They are really fugitive… a fun thing to play with but a waste of time if you want to dye yarn to sell. A lot of energy for no real dyeing results.
I agree - I had held off on doing a lot of these for years but I still get a lot of questions about it.
You really talk way too much in your videos.
Thank you for the feed back! There are time stamps in the videos description of almost all of my videos so you can skip to parts you want to see easily.
😂 you are savage