LWI techniques

[ktaltre]

I've been scrunching shirts loosely in a pan and saturating them with soda ash water.
The shirts are soaking wet, but not swimming.
I use a strong concentration of dye and apply with squirt bottles.

Here's a thick thirsty shirt that looked good in the first bath but had a lot of white left.

I dyed the thirsty shirt again and like it much better.

I have same size pans and flip the shirts over into the other pan to dye the other side.
k. taltre

[tiedyejudy]

Beautiful work!  How long do you let the shirts 'batch' before rinsing?  This is interesting... it would seem that it doesn't matter if you put the soda ash on before or after with LWI!  I have followed Paula's guide since I started doing LWI which has the soda ash solution added after the dye, but your shirts are proof that the order isn't as important... and apparently the quantity of soda ash solution to dye isn't either... thanks for giving us something to ponder!

Judy

[Jaja]

I usually don't like white on mines, but I don't mind white on your shirt. 
Glad to see others work if I can't find time to do experiments. Thanks for sharing and keep 'em coming.

[ktaltre]

Judy - Yeah, if some of us tiedyers are soda soaking, then dyeing, why not use the technique in LWI. I said to myself.
If the shirt is swimming in the soda ash water, it is hard to flip into the other pan - water everywhere, hahahahahaha.
I'm going to make some shirts, leave them open at the side seams and swim them in the soda ash water and apply strong dye. See what that looks like on cotton knit. I've done that with cheap muslin - interesting effects.
The first shirt I did using the "soda really soaked" method was almost pastel; I had watered down my dye concentrates. I redyed it using just concentrates. No pic of that one.
I've been batching between 20 and 24 hours.
In the winter I batch in a folded electric blanket, covered with an old comforter, top and bottom on a table. My, do those dyed items get toasty.
Some pans I LWI in have lids and other pans don't - those I put in a plastic garbage bag. The pans and other paper wrapped tiedye in plastic bags, get inserted in the heating blanket sandwich. In a very cold room.
Jaja - I don't mind white in my tiedye either, but on that particular shirt, the white blob on the hem bothered me, so, what the hey, more dye.............
k. taltre

[ktaltre]

Here's another LWI soda ash soaked pan scrunch. It only soda soaked for about ten minutes before I started squirting the dye on.
I turn my shirts over - usually the front of the shirt ends up on top. I used 5 colors.

This shirt was microwaved in it's pan till hot and steamy - cooled down before washing - a fast shirt.
I've really been liking the finished results of the LWI soda ash soaked cotton knit, better than pouring on the soda ash water afterward.
k. taltre