The Sari Silk Project Day One

These are called Sari silk ribbons. It is another way of saying waste product made to sell from what is left in the sari making process ;-) They come from India and these came damp in the middle and smelled to high heaven. I knew that would be a possibility and was ready for it with my lemon essential oil. That neutralizes cat urine so moldy and mildewy smells are a snap!

Step one is today - the scour. All the ribbons are being soaked in an organic detergent and lemon oil several times throughout today (final two scours - just detergent then just water) and then hung to dry until tomorrow when they will be mordanted for dyes. The dye process I will be doing is natural dyes without heavy metals and without toxic mordants. Trust me - you can do natural dyeing that is more toxic than acid dyes which are the most commonly used dyes these days (and what you have seen so far on the spinning projects I have posted).

People use Sari silk ribbon in weaving and knitting projects and some even use it in art yarns to spin. I bought two packs of it - this one from one vendor and another more colorful lot from another. The colorful lot was clean and smelled lovely and was half the price of this lot that is filthy dirty stinky and twice the price. It's all a learning curve for me. It will depend on how these come out in the dye process if I decide to get more of it or not. I am more of a silk and wool girl really - but I will be dyeing those too.

This seemed a good place to start since I don't have the dye studio separate from the kitchen yet. It should be but money and time are slowing that process down.

Tomorrow will be the mordant photo and then on to exciting dyes!