Water, Washing and Dyes: How H2O Leads the Way to Color Success

When dyeing spinning fiber, it’s all about the color—the perfect shade, the intense hue, the complex nuance of color interplay. Color gets our hearts racing a little faster. We all swoon over beautifully dyed fiber. Hold that little pot of dye powder in one hand and wool fiber in the other, and your mind starts dreaming of the beautiful magic they will make together. It’s abundantly clear that our love affair with color is why we dye fiber in the first place.

To make this color magic happen, there is another often overlooked key player in the dyeing process: water. Water is colorless, and although we use it to dissolve the dye powder and wet down the fiber, it’s not apparent at first glance that it plays such a critical role. Water is there when we begin the dyeing process and it’s still there in pretty much the same amount (minus whatever evaporated) when the dyeing is complete. Because water doesn’t appear to do anything interesting, it is easy to overlook it.

However, water makes up 99 percent or more of the dyebath. Water is like the quiet guy in class who sets the exam curve every time. It may not be as sexy as the colorful dye molecules, but water is a “make or break” factor in whether the dye strikes quickly or slowly and whether it binds, which in turn affects how the colors play with one another and whether the dye will bleed. In short, water determines the success of your dyeing results.

There are many types of dye, classified by their reaction mechanisms and the materials they dye. This article focuses on weak acid dyes. These are among the most common dyes for coloring wool, silk, alpaca, mohair, angora, and other protein fibers. Weak acid dyes also dye nylon, a synthetic fiber that is chemically similar to protein. Collectively, these fibers make up a large percentage of many spinners’ stashes. The ready availability of weak acid dyes in hundreds of hues, coupled with the relatively straightforward procedure to use them, makes them an ideal choice for adding a little (or a lot) of color to your stash.

Kimber Baldwin is the owner of Fiber Optic Yarns, a small indie dye studio and retail store located just outside Cincinnati in the small town of Milford, Ohio. Armed with a PhD in chemistry from the University of Michigan, she will dye anything that can’t run away fast enough. Dyeing usually involves pushing the limits of the dye chemistry to obtain unique results. You can find her online at fiberopticyarns.com.