In the pink
The time has come to block the Spring Things shawl. I was planning on having a good FO report today, but instead there will be a bit of whining and a lot of pink.
The first round through the bath was full of pink. My swatch bled a lot, so this was expected. No problem, we’ll rinse and repeat until the water runs clear. The problem is, the water never ran clear. Bath after bath was full of pink - the second I squeezed the shawl, it would inject dye into the water.
My google-fu brought me to this old post by Grumperina, who emperically showed that Synthrapol didn’t make much of a difference for the bleeding issues, but that vinegar did. I had some vinegar on hand (but no Synthrapol), so I gave that a shot. That worked fabulously - the shawl did not bleed at all while in the vinegar bath. Unfortunately the fix was temporary, subsequent baths to rinse out the vinegar smell brought back the pink.
Next I tried to set the dye by filling a dyepot full of water, bringing it to a simmer, adding tons of vinegar and the shawl, and cooking for a half hour. Dyeing without the dye. I baked banana muffins while I waited for the simmering to complete, which improved my mood slightly. The result?
The Tess laceweight is superwash, so I also tried repeatedly running water directly on the shawl and squeezing it out when saturated. The only thing that did was turn my hands pink.
So now what? I don’t think I can gift this as-is, poor Rob’s grandmother is going to turn her clothing pink when she wears it. I’m going to try buying one of those dye-attracting sheets, crossing my fingers that it will work for wool. Anyone have any suggestions? Also, I have one extra skein of the Tess laceweight, in the same color and purchased at the same time. Would it be fair to request an exchange, or is this standard behavior for intense red yarns?
There was one bright knitting event this weekend - I bought a bunch of $2 yarn on clearance from Yarntopia on Saturday. Some was gift yarn, and the rest were a few extra balls in a dyelot of yarn I already own. That doesn’t count as breaking the yarn diet, right?
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Wow that was a great deal on the yarn. Man but that shawl is bleeding as if it was being murdered. I don’t have any good solutions for you but I wish you luck because I am sure it will be beautiful.
Did the color of the shawl fade after all that bleeding? Because that seems like a lot of color bleeding off it. I think I’d go for an exchange on the extra skein since it would be hard to wear anything knit from it.
If you come up with anything, let me know because I gave up on my turquoise shawl after about five rinses and have to leave it behind on rainy days. It hasn’t bled when I’ve kept it dry, and occasional brushes with the condensation on a soda can have also been uneventful.
Some place I read that if you know that the fibre was dyed with acid dyes then using the vinegar simmer WITH SALT can help set it. I don’t know what proportions you need however… Good luck!
Nope, doesn’t count if you find a really good deal on yarn!
Sorry to hear about the troubles with the shawl bleeding. I wish I had a good solution for you. I think you should be able to return the yarn. The bleeding seems excessive.
hmm, i bought 7 hanks of her laceweight on MDSW this year, in 7 different colors to knit up together…
have you considered giving tess’ mom a call? i wouldn’t email her (imo the emailing didn’t work out very well) but on the phone she’s very helpful.
plus, since it’s a newer product she may need to adjust something she’s doing so it’d be good for her to know.
That is a pain with the bleeding. I have nothing to suggest apart from asking for a refund for the other skein.
$2 yarn most definitely does not count.
One think people mentioned when I was having my red dye issues was something called Retayne that helps fix dyes. I didn’t use it, so I can’t testify, but people seemed enthused by it.
I think you should definitely return the other yarns, and, as Jody said, let them know about this–if yours is running this badly they must need to adjust something somewhere, and they should do it soon, because I wouldn’t buy Tess after seeing this.
Kell - that looks so gross.
If this Tess yarn is hand-dyed, I bet I can even guess what dye she used, based on the color and the fact that it won’t exhaust. Same goes for Liz in the comments. Jacquard Acid Dyes in fuchsia and turquoise just plain do not want to exhaust. I have to be very careful with those colors, or I’ll be rinsing yarn all day.
My only suggestions are to continue what you’ve been doing- rinse, and, if the yarn has in fact been dyed with acid dyes (likely, if it’s wool), do the simmer with lots of vinegar (put the vinegar into the water and stir before adding the shawl) again. You want to get the water temp up to at least 190F (you’ll hear knocking sounds coming from the pot). On the bright side, at least it’s superwash and you won’t ruin it by repeated washings.
The salt Shannon mentioned in the comments is for leveling the dye. Don’t add vinegar after you’ve added the shawl to the dyepot and you don’t need to worry about leveling. You don’t want to add the vinegar after the shawl because the dye could strike where the vinegar hits, causing slotches.
If you know all of this already, my apologies! These two things should eventually work for you, though.
yikes! that’s a lot of work to do and then have that happen. I’m not familiar with dyeing so I’m afraid I can’t help on that end, but I’m pro the suggestion of emailing Tess’ and letting them know, and then doing an exchange on the yarn.
Wow, that sounds frustrating! Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I don’t have any advice to add, but it’s been interesting reading through the comments!
That’s terrible. Sorry that’s happening and I hope you find a fix for it.
Good luck! I’m amazed at how much the shawl is bleeding, but don’t give up on all of that lovely knitting.
huh - that is a problem! I have no suggestions other than what has already been listed, but keep at it - it is too pretty to give up on!!!
Adrian to the rescue. :) Keep us posted!
Ditto what was said about fuschia not exhausting well. You might try simmering gently in vinegar water for 30 minutes and then letting the whole thing come back to room temperature before trying to take the shawl out of the dye pot. Sometimes the slow cool down helps set a dye.
So, this post has me a little concerned about the bright reddy-orangy yarn i got to make a shawl for my mom…should I be concerned or consider your experience a fluke?