Dye Tips - Measuring ...

• We have dye spoons that measure: ¼ tsp., 1/8 tsp., 1/16 tsp., 1/32 tsp., 1/64 tsp., 1/128 tsp. Therefore, it is easy to measure out ½ of a formula by doubling the denominator and leaving the numerator the same. ½ of ¼ is 1/8 and so forth. However, we don’t have a spoon that will measure ½ of 1/128 tsp. If you are working with a formula that has 1/128 tsp. measurements and you want to mix up ½ the amount of dye to dye pieces of wool ½ the size, dissolve the 1/128 tsp. in 1 (cbw) cup of boiling water and use ½ of the solution  then proceed with measuring ½ of the other dyes in the formula.
   
• Did you know that 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml* which means that 1 Tablespoon equals 15 ml*? If you don’t know this, write it down somewhere in a prominent place and try to memorize it. The world won’t come to an end if you don’t, but you will be doing yourself a favor if you do.
   
• Grey spoons (set of three polished aluminum dye spoons) measure: 1/128 tsp., 1/64 tsp., 1/32 tsp., 1/16 tsp., 1/8 tsp., and 1/4 tsp. Take some time to get familiar with each of them. It is awkward at first but after a little while you will be able to pick up the size spoon that you want without looking at the size that is stamped on the bottom of each of the little dippers. Keep in mind, the fraction with the largest denominator (1/128) is actually the smallest spoon. Likewise, the one with the smallest denominator (1/4) is the largest spoon.
   
• When you need to dye more than one yard of the same color and you want consistency of color for the whole lot, take a few minutes to break the dye job down into amounts that you know that you and your pots can handle. For instance, I have recently dyed 3 yards of a color. I dyed 1 yard at a time because the formula was written for 1 yard; and my pots could easily handle 1 yard without crowding. At the same time I measured out all the dye at once in 3 separate beakers. Each beaker held dye for 1 yard. This meant that I could dye 1 yard at a time, one right after another, without having to stop to measure dye.
   
•  On the other hand, if the formula isn’t too complicated and I can easily divide it in half, instead of dyeing 3 - 1 yard batches to get 3 yards, I could dye 2 - 1 ½ yard batches. This could save time and allow more time for other dye projects. However, remember to increase the dye if you use more wool than the original formula is written for.
   
• When measuring out the dye, look at the formula to see how much wool it will dye and increase it for the amount of wool that you want to work with. If the formula is written for ½ yard of wool and you want to dye 1 yard then you must double the dye that you use. On the other hand, if you only want to dye 1/4 yard and the formula is written for ½ yard, then you need only ½ of the formula.
   
• Some fractions are harder to measure. The dye spoons that we use do not measure 1/3 tsp. However, we may want to dye only 1/3 yard and the formula is written for 1 yard pieces. What can we do? The easiest thing to do is to dye either 1/4 yard or ½ yard because you will probably be able to divide the formula in ½ or 1/4 and still be able to measure it with the Grey dye spoons.
   
• Change to liquid measuring if you need to cut formulas and the spoons won’t do it. For instance, you can mix the dye formula in 1 cup of liquid and use 1/3 cup of it to get the proper amount of dye for 1/3 yard when the formula is written for 1 yard. For those of you that are familiar with metric, you could mix the dyes in 240 ml* of water(1 cup) and use 80 ml* of the solution (1/3 of it). Actually you could mix the dye for 1 yard in any amount of water that would be easily divided by 3 whether you use milliliters or ounces.
   
• If you have on hand some bright colors of wool and you want to dye them so that the colors are more muted and pleasing to look at. Just add some of the complement to each one. The complement of a color is that color that lies opposite on the color wheel. For instance, the complement of red is green, the complement of blue is orange and the complement of yellow is purple. Memorize these 3 sets of complements. Start by adding a small amount of the complement and then add more or not as you see the results. Experiment with different amounts over the same bright color. Save samples of the color you start with and the results after each addition of dye.

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milliliters conversion
5 ml = 1 teaspoon
15 ml = 1 Tablespoon
240 ml = 1 cup
180 ml = 3/4 cup
160 ml = 2/3 cup
120 ml = ½ cup
60 ml = 1/4 cup
80 ml = 1/3 cup .