31-2015 { indigo fever }

A few of you have emailed me asking me about how easy it was to indigo dyed... well, the way I do it... it's easy.  To do it 'like a boss'  - to borrow an expression from my children - it's not easy.

The hardest thing is to make the dye bath, to make sure the various elements mix properly etc. etc.  I still don't know.  The two times I've done it I used kits of synthetic indigo rather than start from indigo powder and I do feel I kind of cheated doing it that way but I loved the results so I'm hiding behind those.

My dream is to take a proper course and learn 'the ancient way'... for now you can use these two kits from George Weil:

- Synthetic Indigo Dye Kit. This is what I used last year in Tuscany, it's a little complicated but you can dye up to 2Kg of fibres.

- Mini indigo Tie Dye Kit. This is what I used last weekend, and it was easy peasy.  The colour is lighter than the other one, especially after rinsing and drying, so you need to 're-dip' once or twice if you prefer a much darker blue.

Both come with very clear instructions.  I would say just dive straight in.  My favourite pieces are the ones I just chucked in the dye bath as an after thought (I tipped into it my box of white/cream scraps and they are divine)... and the magic of the green turning blue never gets old. (Try choosing a sunny day... it helps).

I bought my undyed yarn from 'Wooltops' if you fancy trying a bit of that too.

Go on... have fun... 

... you'll find it might become an obsession...

 

Comments

[Jo]

I think there is a course at The Stroud Textiles festival this year. I think I saw one on their website. Have you read the book Colour by Victoria Finaly. It doesn't tell you how to do it but lots of great history on it.

[CJ]

Lovely, I shall look forward to seeing what your scraps turn into. Off to check out the Stroud Textiles festival now, I hadn't heard about it before. CJ xx

[SmitoniusAndSonata]

The difficulty would be knowing where to stop ! It really is a glorious colour .

[Amy at love made my home]

As long as you enjoy what you are doing and the results, the how you get there isn't so important in my view! xx

[Emma]

Oof, that faded floral you've dyed in the top photo has made me even more excited about this indigo adventure of yours, and don't get me started on the tie dye you've been showing off.