I started knitting the first blank yesterday. Oy vey! 4,050 rows and about 2 hours later, I’m done. The finished blank is 30+ feet long! I tried doubling the width, but wound up with so many dropped stitches that I gave up. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to manage the dyeing of the piece – I suspect it will just require lots and lots of plastic wrap.
I am debating whether to steam the dyed blank or to let it batch. I’m a little hesitant to try batching, mostly because I’ve never tried it before: I’ve been told by several experts that it will work, but I’m so used to heating acid dyes that I can’t help wondering somewhere in the back of my mind if it will really be as lightfast/washfast as if I had heated it. Fodder for more experiments, I suppose!
At any rate, I think I will try batching for this sample, because I don’t want to take the slightest chance of the blank felting. (Yes, I know – if I don’t agitate it, it won’t felt, but I’m paranoid, OK?) It’s hard enough to unravel as is. So I will paint it tomorrow morning, wait a day or two for the dyes to set, and then rinse/unravel/weave it. Then I will try simmering a swatch with soap to see if any dye bleeds. That should put to bed any concerns about washfastness.
Once I have finished testing the swatch, I will take the 54″ sample and cut it into several lengthwise sections. I will try overdyeing with fiber-reactive dyes in different color combinations, to see how different colors of silk warp interact with the changing colors of weft. That will probably happen next weekend. Once that is completed, I’ll be able to start the final material.
I plan to weave up twelve panels: ten for each panel of the garment plus two extras in case of mishap. That is about 50,000 rows of knitted blank! It makes me feel a little faint just to contemplate it, but I expect I’ll muddle through the way I usually do…one row at a time! I think it will take a total of twenty-four hours to knit up all the weft, but I won’t do it all at once…and if I knit a blank, dye it, and then weave it up, it will break up the monotony of each task. So, that’s the plan.
Off to bed! Tomorrow morning I will do some dyeing, then run up to my friend Ginny’s to finish off the samples for that article in Handwoven.
Stephanie S says
Wool and soda ash = bad result in my experience. Before you commit your entire sample to the fiber reactive ‘overdye’ try it out first with a small initial swatch. I haven’t dyed silk with fiber reactive dyes and understand that less soda ash is used with silk . Ok, I am smiling now at the thought that I am suggesting you might sample before making a sample…but there is a lot of effort going into the sample you are planning. Best wishes.
Stephanie S
Ann says
I can’t remember where you live–is it a warm area? You could try batching it in black plastic trash bags–either left out in the sun, or in a car with the windows rolled up (maybe by the rear window). That often supplies enough heat to set dye.
Ruth says
Tien–what knitting machine are you using? I played with knitted/raveled weft for some scarves (with pretty boring results) and some towel (acceptable results), but after I damaged my shoulder, I found I couldn’t use the knitting machine that I had–it was too stiff. I gave it to a friend. Apart from the electric machines that basically knit the blank for you (seems a bit like cheating to me), I’m wondering if there are machines that I could use, given my minimal shoulder power.