dry and gray

my beet dyed cotton scarf is dry, and it's lost most of the initial orange tint. As I expected, it's turned a sort of grayish color, with a bit of a tan/rosy tint. I didn't know how long it would take for my original color to fade to this grayish color - but I didn't quite expect it to go gray quite that fast! I did dry it by hanging it in the bathroom under the heat lamp. it's possible the constant exposure to light sped up the process.

I'm considering preparing another beet red dye bath (minus the alum and vinegar this time) and over dying the scarf to see if I get a more reddish final result. It would most likely still fade to a gray, but I wonder if I could get a more rosy gray, and perhaps a bit darker. best way to find out is to try it, no doubt!

I found some research this afternoon that confirmed what I suspected about the surprise orange my beet dye bath turned. I thought it had to do with either 1) not rinsing the cotton after the mordant bath of alum, or 2) the vinegar i added to the dye bath. turns out it probably had to do with both of them. both additives affect beet dye by turning it orange. The paleness of the dye result is due to it being cotton. I knew this before I dyed it, but cotton doesn't take on the dye color as easily or as well as wool. if I had used wool, I would have gotten a similar color, but it would have been somewhat darker.

Below is a photo showing my dry beet dyed scarf result next to the original cone of white cotton.

I'm currently preparing a skein of 100% wool yarn for dyeing with strawberries. I've seen images of the results with various additives, which is helpful. Turns out that in this case the alum is going to turn it a brighter version of pink than anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing my own result! This time impatience has gotten the better of me, and i'm dyeing the wool before knitting it into a scarf. Lets hope I cut enough yarn for a decent sized scarf! I also have no idea the colorfastness of strawberry dye... lets hope it's better than beets! :)