Fastest Way To Dry Wool

Weather you are cleaning and lanolizing wool or dying wool the biggest issue is it takes so long to dry!!

Well I have good news for you! I dry my wool in about 2 hours per piece.  Interlock fabric or longies.  I simply place it on the back of a fan and the wetness is sucked out.  I can wash and lano my full stash and have every piece dried by bed time.  Now you can too.

Microwave Dying Wool Interlock With Wilton's (food) Colouring

Well as I wait for my cuffs, waist and butt circles to ice dye for my wool longies I am dyeing the legs (if said longies) blue with Wilton's royal blue colour (what I usually use for colouring marshmallow fondant for cakes).  This is much quicker.

I added blue colour to a bowl of hot tap water and some vinegar (about 3/4 cup) and stirred.  There was some chunks that didn't dissolve...I'm sure it will add depth instead of symmetrical coverage.  And I like that.

Next I added the leg pieces to the bowl and microwaved for 2 min, let set 2 min (in theory, in reality it was 2-5 because I have a lot going on today before my in laws arrive),  repeat till water us clear.

I thought it was done after second time cuz the water was clear but when I lifted the wool with tongs colour ran off. So back to the microwave.

When finally done I microwaved a bowl of plain water for 2.5 min then took wool out of first bowl and put it to set in second bowl.  I will leave it there till the water cools then dry on the back of a fan.  Since I dont want shrinkage or felting its important to let it cool down at room temperature.

And here the leg peices are dried and laid out with the ice dyed peices it will go with.

Ice Dying Wool Interlock With Wilton's Colouring paste.

Well when the jello dying of interlock shorties looked probably successful I knew i wanted to dye my white interlock fabric.  And I wanted it ice dyed.  But i have no ice cube trays...what to do?   what to do?.....aha! Make coloured ice in metal pie runs then smash when solid.  I can do this.  But I have a limited number for this, plus limited freezer space and limited left over colour.  So I decided I will ice dye butt circles and cuffs,  cuz the longies will be made using monster bunz (mb).

Knowing I would want to start asap I made pans of coloured water while the red jello shorties were soaking.  From there I will have to wait.  I have royal blue and golden yellow.  So I made blue,  yellow and green.

 Once frozen the shorties  should be dry.  If the shorties shrank lots I will just dump the ice I guess.

I also had to make room in my freezer.  This meant lots of stacking.  Tomorrow we shall see if I proceed.  The remaining fabric will be microwaved in blue I think.

Day 2:
The shorties turned out great with no felting so into dyeing my fabric.  I cut out my pieces: 2 butt circles and 2 sets if cuffs (one set in red interlock, one set for a pair I'm dying blue), 1 waist band and one set of legs (to be blue, different post).

Next I hammered the ice.  The yellow was in a 6in cake pan.  That was a mistake as I could only get large chunks.

Then having no suitable rack I placed wool in the front cover of a fan lol.

Poured vinegar water solution over top

Added ice.  Since I'm cooking tonight's chicken now before it gets really hot outside it is in my tiny super hot kitchen.

Once done cooking I moved it outside to my balcony in the sun.  Let's hope I can keep monkey and the cats away from it lol.  And now waiting for ice to melt.

The ice melted pretty quick in the sun.

After that I hung them to dry outside untill my blue dye job (next post after this) was dry and then i moved these peices to the back of my fans.  I squeezed out excess water by hand which gave the back ground a light green tinge.  Rolled in a towel then hung them.  I was surprised by the maroon and bit of purple.  And I am very happy with the results.

The water that dripped into the bowl was such a lovely green i dted my wool scraps in it.  They will either become a wool soaker or or (if big enough) longies.

Dying Wool Interlock Shorties With Jello

I've been wanting to dye my wool.  A few things have stood in my way though.  Budget, even with Daddy Monkey having a new job we are still below the poverty line.  We have money for extras, but with the price of wool its hard to justify adding the price of acid dyes plus shipping.

So I dug around the internet and diacovered wool can be dyed in kool aid, jello and the wiltons (and similar brands) of colouring paste I use for colouring marshmallow fondant.

The idea of boiling or microwaving my wool sent fears of felting down my spine.  Shrinkage of wool is not in my budget.  But then as I failed to fall asleep tonight I remembered  it is agitation and scrubbing (also agitation) that felts wool.  And temperature change in water the at shrinks wool.

Ok I thought, I can try this on his white shorties.  Getting the stains out if them always sucks and he likely won't be wearing them next summer, and its August already.

So I tried 2 packs of no name jello (red) in the microwave method.
1. Microwaveable bowl of water and some vinegar (close to one cup)
2. Mix in jello.  I used 2 bixes because one didn't look dark enough and i know daddy wont want his boy in pink.
3. Submerge shorties
4. Microwave on high 2 min, rest 1.5 min and repeat until water is clear.  One of the sets of instructions I read said 3 times.  It took me 5 or 6 (I lost count).
5. Soak in clean water.  To do this I microwaved a second bowl of water 3 min, then transfered shorties to that bowl.  I read of this being done twice so I mucroved a third bowl right away.  I set the bowl with shorties on the stove as well as the empty bowl so they would be same temperature when I transfer from one bowl to another.  This way the wool shouldn't shrink.

The shorties are currently soaking in the second bowl.  My next decision will be how to dry.  I'd like to dry with my usual fast back of fan method but afraid of sticky jello water.  On the balcony on my drying rack might be safer....but I'm impatient lol.

(Next morning)
I dried them on the back of the fan and so this morning they are dry, no shrinkage or felting (yay).  They aren't a deep or completely solid red.  This (I believe) is because this wool interlock is 3% spandex and acid (and food) dyes are for wool, silk, mohair etc.  But they aren't pink.  Next up, cutting more wool to dye with Wilton colouring paste in an ice dye.

Cute pictures in wool shorties

Monkey is wearing one of his wool interlock shorties today.  I used monster bunz for these cuz I prefer the fit.  Ignore the mess please lol.  Its a Saturday morning which means the teen siblings were allowed to spend the night up watching movies, playing video games and crashing in the living room.  When they get up they get to tidy their mess lol.