YST Episode 12 Cotton Dye Day

Dyeing Cotton Part one. In today's podcast I am joined by my local spinners/knitters for a day of dyepots, fiber and fun.  Cotton fiber, specifically and the project was all for a fiber swap starting in the Ravelry group, Garden Spinning. Please be sure to check out the blogs for each of the dyers, for lots of pictures. Anita, Andrea, and Viki.   Yarnspinners blog is here. Here's a few key points about what we learned: Cotton needs to be soaked very thoroughly in soda ash water, to take up the dye well.  Dyes created specifically for cotton need to be used.  These are the old formula Cushings union dyes or any dye specifically created for tie dyeing. Solar heating or low tech variations with a heating pad work well to set the dyes.  Temperatures need to be around 100 degrees. Cotton takes a very long time to dry, needs lots of dry heat or breeze to dry and looks pretty compacted until it does dry. A good thumping on the cotton, once it is dry will fluff it up and make it ready to spin. There's lots more on the podcast!  So much more, that I had to divide the podcasts into two parts.  So continue on with episode 13 to hear the rest of the story. Music for the podcast is from the podsafe music network.  Clare Dowling provides my opening theme, and the interludes today are by Dan Tharp.