Warp Strings 3 : Mottled Blue, Plum and Leaf Green

Here are the 3 Amigos : The 3 colors that will be the wool warp for the next round of rugs on the floor loom: Plum, Blue and leaf Green.  All hand-dyed.

I LOVE how this turned out.  I started aith a hank of camel-colored carpet warp (wool).  It took the color beautifully!  1-1/2 tsp Wilton's Royal Blue in the crock pot with 1/4 cup of white vinegar.  I let the pot warm up with the yarn pre-soaking as it warmed.  Then I removed the yarn and added the  vinegar and dissolved Wilton's.  Mixed it up, then threw in the yarn.

I love how it soaked up the color at different rates with some parts a darker blue than others.  Where the ties acted as a resist, it's more light blue.  This will make a beautiful warp.  Need to make a few more, to have enough for a loom full of rugs!  This is only 660 yard, if I've done my calculations correctly.

I used the crock pot instead of the stove top.  The only difference is that it takes a little longer.

I also did a batch of deep purple/plum  (mixed Wilton's drops) and leaf green (old Procion dye) in separate pots on the stove.  I got some nice mottling / breaking on the plum where the colors broke a little.     The Procion is a slightly different method than the Wilton's. 

That's a Wilton's Kelly Green int he top half of this pic.  That's the first green I'd dyed for the warp trio, but I finally decided that it was too bright for the blue and plum.  I needed something a bit more muted.  Enter the Leaf Green Procion color you see in the bottom half of the photo.  Much better!

I use a slightly different method to dye wool with Procion dye.  You have to be careful with the soda ash required in fiber reactive dye, as it is not good for the wool.  In short, if you want to use Procion dye on wool, you replace the soda ashwith vinegar, salt and heat to make the dye bind.  So far, it's been working very well!

This photo is actually truer to the colors than the top one.
Still a very nice color combo.