It is a military wool blanket. I love wool blankets for camping and hanging out outdoors. I don't much care for the olive green – even though green is my favorite color.
So I dyed one side of if grey. I couldn't find anybody else online (just a short search) that dyes a single side of a blanket. So I made it up as I went along. I'd picked up some Dharma Trading 'Twilight grey' and basically painted it on for lack of better description.
Normally you soak whatever you want to dye, but that will get the whole thing. So I mixed up the dye, water, vinegar (a mordant, helps the acid dye work) and a bit later, soap, for better 'wetting' of the blanket.
I am really, really impressed with how it turned out.
In album Dye single side of wool blanket
The green is still green, the grey, is a dark forest green.
Something I’ve done with the grey blanket is made it more water resistant.
water beaded up in the center, soaked in on the lower right.
I’d treated the grey blanket last year with lanolin. The oil that naturally occurs in wool while the sheep are wearing it, It’s what keeps sheep dry in the rain. In one context it seems silly that it’s taken out, but the wool can’t be dyed with it still in the fibers. So I add it back, and make the blanket more water resistant.
I am dying my green wool blanket grey.
I am spraying the dye on. I am using a spray bottle rescued from the recycling. It works just as good as the ones that cost $3 – probably because it did cost $3, but full, not empty.
I mixed up the dye, vinegar, and water into a juice container rescued from the recycling, and poured it in a little at a time with the funnel. The second batch I added a bit of dish soap to ‘wet’ the wool. The dye spray was beading on the fibers, the soap helps it soak deeper into the fabric.
The light grey in the upper right is the dye as sprayed on. I worked it into the blanket surface so I got better contact with the fibers instead of the spray just sitting on top of the blanket.
I want a mildly dappled effect, so I heavily dappled the blanket with the dye. It spreads out, so the effect is much more subtle when dried.
I hope…
In order to set the dye, I microwaved the blanket while it was still damp. I misted the dye side with the dye right before folding it dye side together and rolling it up. Microwave the daylights out of it in couple minute bursts. I took it out, and re-rolled it with what was on the inside on the outside so I get even steaming of the dye.
I re-folded the blanket and nuked it some more. It was probably cooking a dozen 2 minute bursts.
I stuck it into a kidde pool to wash. This is the moment of truth… did the dye bind to the wool or will it leach out?
The water just barely tinted, so the dye fixed to the wool! YAY!
Hanging to dry. The color is better than I expected. I really like the dappled effect, very subtle.
The still-damp blanket in the house. I really really like the dappled effect on the folded blanket.
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