# What dying can I do in my kitchen?



## kyweaver (Nov 30, 2009)

I want to start doing some dying, but I don't have anywhere to do it but in my home kitchen. I am currently in a small apartment with no room for an outdoor burner.

I would most like to do natural dying, but am also interested in regular (chemical?) dyes.

I have done a lot of reading (Jim Lyles' book, internet, Dharma Trading, Weaver's Garden, etc.). Most of them either don't mention safety, or are paranoid (Don't even bring dye into your kitchen or you will DIE), or flippant (oh whatever, just see what happens). 

I understand that even "safe" dyes would need safe handling and good cleanup. Please tell me what I can dye in my kitchen. Without dying.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

LOL! I know what you mean. There is always the kool-aid dye to start with.

I am looking forward to busting out my acid dyes really soon. 
The main thing with mixing dye is that it is most concentrated when it is dry.
You do NOT want to snort the powder. Using a bit of CARE, it is not too dangerous. 
I just treat it the same way as any household chemical:

~dont breathe it
~dont get it on your skin (uhm, really *try* not to) :grin:
~wash your hands after
~use special pots for it, not your reg. dishes and spoons
~clean up your mess after
~dont dump your 'waste' into the water supply

TA-DA! dyeing w/o dying. 

I am basing my opinions on procion dyes and mixing pigments for silk screening, (those ss pigments colors have a long list of dangers). 
All done in the house. I have purple wooden spoons to prove it. LOL. 

You DO need special pots just for the colors and some common sense,
which I am sure you can muster. I cant wait to see. Be sure to take pics.


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## Mrs. Jo (Jun 5, 2007)

Youtube is your friend! I just watched a few a yarn dying videos today. Try searching for yarn dying with koolade or food color. It looks really easy, is safe and cheap. It also look like you can get some really pretty colors from it.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

I boiled weeds and dyed wool with that: all of us here to tell about it, too! I even let the little kids help. 

We experimented with tansy and yarrow, both of which gave us nice shades of green (I use copper sulfate mordant - which IS ikky, but we have it already since it has agricultural uses - it's a foot disinfectant). 

Have you seen "A Dyers Garden"? Awesome little book with great info on plant dyes. Your climate is so different than mine, I'm sure your weeds are different too ... but there are lots of neat things you can do with plants, and although it may smell a bit (tansy isn't really a pretty smelling plant when boiled!) it's nontoxic.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

I have a elec turkey cooker- that big thing ,the MIL gives you for a wedding gift. It works real nice for dyeing. Just don't breath in the dust and put newspaper down. It's not so scary.


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## Shazza (Nov 20, 2004)

You could solar dye your wool if you have enough outdoor area to sit a tray full of wool.


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## Katherine in KY (May 11, 2002)

I do a lot of dyeing, both chemical and natural, using kitchens that are also used for food prep. We have a kitchen in a cabin near the garden that I use for dyeing and also for canning, but we turn off the water in winter so then I use our regular kitchen if the dye bug gets me. I'm not a fanatic about how dangerous dyeing is, but I do have dedicated equipment for dyeing (mostly old pots and utensils). I don't wear a face mask, but try not to breathe in chemical powders. I usually forget to wear gloves, but the dyebaths are hot so I don't stick my hands in them anyway. I sometimes use a microwave that is also used for food; some people maintain that dye particles can remain on the surface of an oven, microwave or regular, and fall into food at a later time. I guess I don't do enough oven dyeing to worry about that although I do try to cover what I dye after reading about that. With natural dyes I mostly use alum as a mordant and sometimes add tin or iron; I don't use chrome which is one of the most toxic mordants. For the amount of dyeing that I do and the accompanying exposure to chemicals I suspect that I get much more exposure just from general living--so many toxic chemicals are used in products that surround us these days no matter how hard you try to "go natural."


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## Nellie (Oct 18, 2006)

Koolaid dyeing is really just using food coloring. Which is a cheaper way to go, and you have more control over what colors you want. Now as to whether they are poisonous chemicals or not is another topic, lol!


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## luvzmybabz (Sep 8, 2008)

frazzlehead said:


> Have you seen "A Dyers Garden"? Awesome little book with great info on plant dyes. Your climate is so different than mine, I'm sure your weeds are different too ... but there are lots of neat things you can do with plants, and although it may smell a bit (tansy isn't really a pretty smelling plant when boiled!) it's nontoxic.


I was in Tractor supply the other day and I think this book was on the clearance rack. For like 5.00$ had a layout of the garden and explained all the different plants to use for dyes. If hubby would not have been there getting cranky I would have looked through it more and seen if I wanted to try it out.


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## kyweaver (Nov 30, 2009)

I have read through the Dyer's Garden, and Jim Lyles' Natural Dye book. They both warn about the toxicity of the MORDANTS, not the dyes. Chrome and tin and the fumes from some others are listed as quite dangerous. 

What about acid or fiber reactive dyes like you buy especially for dyeing? I do have a dedicated wool pot (stainless steel 3 gallon used to scour wool, never going to be cooked in cause it grosses DH out). I just don't have a second stove or sink. I know not to actually cook at the same time, but can I use the same facilities?


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## weever (Oct 1, 2006)

kyweaver said:


> I have read through the Dyer's Garden, and Jim Lyles' Natural Dye book. They both warn about the toxicity of the MORDANTS, not the dyes. Chrome and tin and the fumes from some others are listed as quite dangerous.
> 
> What about acid or fiber reactive dyes like you buy especially for dyeing? I do have a dedicated wool pot (stainless steel 3 gallon used to scour wool, never going to be cooked in cause it grosses DH out). I just don't have a second stove or sink. I know not to actually cook at the same time, but can I use the same facilities?


We dye in our workshop without running water. We tote water in 5 gallon buckets for vinegar presoaking. We mostly handpaint, applying the jacquard dyes directly on the fiber/yarn. Then we microwave the fiber to set the dye in our dyeing-only microwave (available at your local goodwill for $5-10). We also dye yarn in a dedicated large old coffeemaker, which we also tote water for. 

We do our rinsing and soaking in synthropol in the kitchen sink. 

Does this help?


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## Pakalana (Mar 9, 2008)

Nellie said:


> Koolaid dyeing is really just using food coloring. ... Now as to whether they are poisonous chemicals or not is another topic, lol!


LOL! My thoughts exactly.


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