Red cabbage dye
The Red cabbage, also known as brassica oleracea, is one of those natural products that have a very vibrant and powerful color. Which is why it makes a lot of sense to create a Red cabbage dye, since it has some amazing coloring and features that you do not want to miss at all. Creating a proper Red cabbage dye vat all comes down to the way you prepare everything. And it usually comes down to the pH of the dye bath.
What should you know about the Red cabbage dye?
If the pH is very acidic then you will have a strong color, but in the opposite situation you will have a faded color type. So it’s a great idea to know what you want to achieve with the Red cabbage dye beforehand, just to be safe.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that this type of dye is very hard to fix to the medium for a particular amount of time. And the reason is simple, this is a natural dye and you’re not bringing in any chemicals that will speed up the process.
What you can do in order to make it stick properly is to mordant the yarn before you use the Red cabbage dye. Cream of Tartar and Alum might help here. You can also add salt to the dye batch, as this will also make the color stick and you really want to achieve such a result if possible.
How can you create the Red cabbage dye bath?
- The first thing you want to do is to dice the cabbage finely, then add it to the dye pot
- Make sure that you cover everything with water
- Put around a tablespoon of salt for every ½ cabbage. This will help make the dye stick to your yarn. As we mentioned earlier, it’s important to mordant the yarn if you want this color to stick.
- Simmer for around 30 minutes. The idea is that you want to acquire as much color as you can from this cabbage.
- After 30 minutes you can strain off your cabbage, but not before squeezing any color that’s left. At this point you will have a dye vat of purple Red cabbage dye.
- Now you can either keep this color or you can shift the color to blue by adding 1 tbsp of ammonia. Adding 2 tbsp of ammonia will change the color to pink.
One thing is certain, preparing the Red cabbage dye can be very challenging and tricky, all you have to do is to make the right pick and you will be more than ok. Following the instructions listed above will help a lot and the results will be great. You do need to take your time to prepare everything and you can even simmer for more than 30 minutes. Some Red cabbages are easier to simmer, others less so. Which means it’s ok to take more than 30 minutes sometimes. Just make sure that everything is prepared adequately, and then you can use ammonia to change colors the way you want!