Tutorial: How to make Dye Stock

So I decided to create a short photo tutorial on how I make dye stock. First, lets talk a bit about why you would want to do this. For most dyers making dye stock ensures repeatable results, but only if you take good notes in your dyers color book (which I will talk about in another post later!). Commercial powdered dyes can also be quite toxic, and no one wants to inhale particulates, so creating a dye solution also decreases the chances of inhaling the dye by lowering the number of times you are exposed to the powder.

I personally like to use a 1% dye stock solution, but you could really do any percentage you like, 2%, 4%, or even a concentrate at 10% that you dilute down would work. In another post we will talk a bit about depth of shade (DOS) and how that effects your colors, but for now lets dive into the tutorial.

Supplies needed;

Dye powder or food coloring/gel.
Water.
A small spoon or scoop for measuring out the dye.
Small digital scale capable of measuring grams and that has a tare function.
Several jars or containers that are heat proof, glass works well.
Something to mix with.
A microwave.
If you are working with something other than food coloring, I recommend a dust mask and gloves as well.

First, put your heat proof jar on the scale, and then TARE out the weight of the empty jar. This resets the weight to 0 so you can then start measuring the dye into the container on the scale.

Mixing jar on scale

Jar tared out to 0

I mix my dye stock in large quantities, usually 500ml at a time. This next step requires a bit of math. We want a 1% dye stock solution. To mix 500 ml of 1% solution the formula is this 500ml x .01 = 5ml of dye, so we will be using 495ml of water and 5ml of dye. You may need less dye stock amount, so just multiply the amount you want to make by .01 to get the number of grams of dye you will need to use.  The dye is a powder or gel that I use (but food coloring liquid would work too) and our scale only measures grams. Luckily one ml is equal to one gram, so our measurements are really easy.

Dye powder and spoon for scooping.

5g dye on scale.

Next we want to add a small amount of HOT water to begin the mixing of our dye. This step is often called pasting up, as it turns the powder into a paste and dissolves it into solution.  I heat my water in a glass canning jar in the microwave. If you are using liquid food coloring you can skip this step. I use a small whisk to ensure thorough mixing and make sure I dissolve all the dye powder.

Dye powder pasted up.

Dye stock at 500g.

 Dye stock stays good for approximately 6 months, so you have plenty of time to use it to make some colorful yarn or fibre!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments.

Brittany