Those of you have dyed wool before.  I have only ever done cold water dyeing in the past, so got away witha plastic bowl as the dye tub.  But for my next exploit I am venturing into natural dyeing and need to “cook” the ingredients.  What do you use as the dye pot?  Do you use it as a dye pot exclusively, or are you able to use it for culinary uses afterwards?  My mum has given me her old jam pan, but it is aluminium, and whilst I wouldn’t use it for cooking because it is aluminium, she may want to borrow it back at times, also I wasn’t sure if the aluminium would affect the dyeing process in any way? 

Ideas please.

I did this on a whim once and it was a disaster!  I used tumeric, hibiscus leaves and something that gave a blue colour, possibly blueberries?  but I used an aluminium pot, which very slightly stained yellow, and I used stainless steel for the other two which didn’t stain.  I tried dying my organic sheeps wool, it looked gorgeous when it was in the dye bath, but when i rinsed it it was really horrible, they looked like wool that a sheep had given birth on, a sort of dischargey brown colour!  I’m not sure where I went wrong, i used salt as a fixative (or was it vinegar, I can’t remember) but I definately enjoyed the process.

I’m sure as an experienced dyer you’ll be fine though!

Aluminium can affect the colours achived as it is not inert enough and might react with the dye chemicals. I bought a very cheep stainless stock pot to do mine in. I think if you are dyeing without mordant then you should be ok to use it for other stuff (so long as the dye stuff would be harmless) but if you’ve used mordant you are supposed to keep foodstuffs out afterwards.

I used onion skins the first time I did it and it was mega easy if a little smelly I got alovely orangey brown colour with orange onions and a browner colour with red onions.

I’m planning on buying some more dyeing wool at wonderwool

Whatever vessel you use it needs to be kept for dyeing only and not used for culinary purposes if the wool has been mordanted, but to be honest I would keep pans seperate anyway personally. I have stainless steel ones picked up cheaply at charity shops - big ones are better - often people I know pick them up at car boot sales too. I also use a steamer but for dyeing purposes only too.

If it’s the project you mentioned on your blog recently, I wouldn’t use the aluminium pot personally, and as there is a mordant you wouldn’t want to use it again for cooking in.

Look forward to seeing your results.