Dyeing the Wool (Part I)

 There's a lot of wool. 89 skeins, to be exact (I thought that there were 83, but I did a re-count). Before any of it could be dyed, each skein had to be tied up so that it wouldn't get tangled. So, here's me tying up some wool:

And here's the wool after it had all been tied. The pile started off in the crate and then grew up onto and around the table.

Next step, scouring! This wool was particularly dirty, and I wanted to wash it really really well before I started the dyeing process, so I made the decision to scour it in pots on the stove. So, here's the first batch of wool being scoured (I could only fit about 1/4 of the wool at a time on the stove):

Each batch had to be on the stove for about an hour, so all said and done, the scouring took around five hours, as it took some time to get each batch switched over to the next one (those pots are heavy!). Once a batch of wool was finished being scoured, each skein had to be hung up, or laid out somewhere to dry. I mindfully chose an afternoon to be in the dye studio when I knew that no one else would need to use it, because I basically took over the space and had wool lying around everywhere.

Before the actual dyeing happens, the wool needs to be mordanted so that the dye will 'stick' to the wool. So after the scouring came the mordanting. Same sort of thing as the scouring process... the wool has to sit in the mordant on the stove for about an hour. It needs a little more room in the pot at this point though, so I had to cut down on the number of skeins in each batch, meaning I'd now be up to five batches.

After a batch had been mordanted, I hung it up for a little while to cool down a bit, and then wrapped up the skeins in plastic wrap in bunches or three or four so that it wouldn't dry out before I could dye it.

I was about 1/3 of the way through the mordanting when my knitting instructor said "Alexe, I've been thinking, maybe we can figure out a way to dye your wool in a really big bucket without having it on the stove". Basically, 1/3 of my wool is going to be light grey, and 2/3 of it is going to be dark grey. Susan (knitting instructor) suggested that I go find a big garbage bin or something similar, fill it up with hot water and the mordant, and let the 1/3 of the wool (enough to dye the light grey portions) sit in there over the weekend. When it would come time to dye it, we'd do a similar thing... get the water going in there to be as hot as possible, and then instead of heating it on the stove, just let it sit for a long time. 

This was great news! Not only would it cut down on a lot of time (not necessarily overall dyeing time, but certainly time that I would have to actually be in the dye studio doing things), but it would ensure a consistent colour throughout all of the skeins, which was a big concern with the stovetop method. 

So, off to Canadian Tire to buy a huge container! This is what I ended up with:

It has a 55 gallon capacity and comfortably holds the 29 skeins of wool that I needed it to. So, I had it sitting by the sink this morning as I was filling it up with water... and more water... and more water... and then the wool... and then a little more water... and then it was full, and I went to move it into the back room where it would be out of the way while it sat there for the weekend...

Obviously, the thing was ridiculously heavy and wouldn't budge. So I guess it's just going to sit in the middle of the dye studio until Monday. Oops.

I did leave a nice note, though.