Faded Sweater Rescue

There's a transition from new knitter to experienced knitter to advanced knitter. And there's a transition from person who knits or person who is learning to knit to knitter as an identity. And then there's old knitter. If you have a knitted sweater old enough to have faded from wear and love, you might be an old knitter.

This is not a bad thing. Maybe not an old knitter so much as a wise knitter or a sage knitter?

I have been knitting long enough to have reached that milestone. I have dear hand knit items that have faded. They are still good, but they look worn. What is a knitter to do?

Overdye!

I've taken classes to learn how to use Jacquard acid dyes. But they only work on protein fiber. They are great on wool and silk. Not so great on linen or cotton. I live in Atlanta. While I do have plenty of animal fiber in my stash, it isn't uncommon for me to knit with mixed fibers. I have a red gansey I knit back in 2004. It was my first design where I dug through Barbara Walker, picked out the patterns I like, bought what for me was expensive yarn, and followed Beth Brown-Reinsel's book. When that sweater faded, I decided to overdye it. Same color — I just wanted to refresh the red. I forgot to take a before picture. Here's the after picture.

After is awesome. The sweater is red. Really, fully, beautifully, red. Yes!

I thought it might be helpful to document my process as I overdye a different sweater. This one is the six-point tee I knit in 2014. It has been through the laundry a few times, as it is a staple in my summer wardrobe. It is linen, which is a fiber that softens by running it through the laundry over and over and over again. I am looking for the same color. As before with the red sweater, I called up The Woolery . Erika kindly helped me. The Woolery didn't have any of the Procion yellow-greens in stock, but were able to order color 7158 bright green for me.

First, a quick before close-up of the sweater. It doesn't look all that faded when I plop it on the scanner. Trust me, in person, you can tell this is faded.

Here's what I needed:

• Procion MX fiber-reactive dye
• common salt (non-iodized preferred)
• soda ash (i.e. dye activator)
• non food-safe containers for measuring and mixing
• disposable wood chopsticks for mixing 
  
• kitchen scale
• big ol' 5 gallon Home Depot or Lowe's bucket
• big ol' stick for stirring
• old lab coat to protect me and my clothes (optional; wear old clothes otherwise)
• rubber gloves (not optional)
• timer (optional but helpful)
  
• iPad with audio entertainment queued up (optional but helpful)

Notice that none of the needed materials — dye, salt, soda ash, even the big bucket — are expensive.

I turn the water temperature on the water heater up and down as needed. I do this when I am scouring fleeces as well. For dyeing, I turn it up for the scouring before and the washing afterwards, but have it down at normal level during the dyeing process.

It is easier for me to measure everything ahead of time. Thus:

• Weight of goods (WOG) = 170g. That is the weight of my sweater.

• Salt = 100% WOG. I weigh out 170g of salt. Some people even use 150% WOG. Salt is cheap.

• Soda ash (dye activator) = 10% WOG for light to medium colors, 7% for dark. In this case, I use 17g.

• Dye = 3% WOG. On the color card, you can see percentages with each color. This is what percentage of dye per weight of goods you need. Use less for a paler color. The color I'm using calls for 3%. If this were undyed, I'd need about 5g. Since I'm over-dyeing, I can go with 3g. I needed to wash out the plastic container, so I left a little water in the bottom. This isn't a bad thing when you are measuring out dye powder. Dye in water stays in the water. Dry dye powder can get into the air and then into your lungs. Bad.

Clean fabric takes the dye best. Scour before dyeing, ideally in hot (140°F/60°C) water. You don't need to run the fabric through the dryer, as you'll want wet fabric to go into the dye bath.

I do the dyeing in the bathroom. The big orange bucket goes in the tub. A faucet is right there, as is a drain. All the water should be room temperature to warm (75-95°F/24-35°C) unless you are using black dye. In that case, you need hot (125°F/52°C) water.

Procedure:

• Put on old clothes or lab coat/smock and rubber gloves.
• Measure everything into non-food-safe containers. You should have three containers (salt, soda ash, and dye) plus the bucket.
  

• Optional: Set up iPad and queue up podcast, audiobook, or music. Hit "play."
• Fill the 5 gallon bucket halfway (or high enough the fabric can move freely) with room temperature (75-95°F/24-35°C) water.
• Dump the salt in the bucket of water.
• Stir until dissolved.
  
• Dissolve the dye powder in room temperature (75-95°F/24-35°C) water until it is completely dissolved. This is why I put the dye in a large container and stir with a chopstick.
• Dump the dye stock into the bucket of salt water.
• Stir.

• Put the clean wet fabric into the dye bath.
• Stir gently but frequently for 10 to 15 minutes. This is why you want audio entertainment. This is also when the optional timer is helpful.
  
• Dissolve the soda ash completely in warm (95°F/35°C) water. Stir it with the other chopstick.
  
• Remove fabric from dye vat.
• Add dissolved soda ash water to dye vat.
• Stir well.
• Return fabric to dye vat.
• Stir continuously but gently for 5 minutes.
• Stir every 5 minutes to ensure even dyeing. This is where the timer helps again.
  
• After adding soda ash, fabric should be in dye vat 20-30 minutes for light colors, up to 60 minutes for dark colors, 90 minutes for black.
• When color is achieved (remember wet colors look darker), remove fabric from vat and dump dye down the drain. Unlike acid dyes, the dye vat does not become clear!
  

• Wash fabric in room temperature water (75-95°F/24-35°C), changing the rinse water 3 to 4 times. It should run clear.
  
• Plop fabric in bucket and take to laundry room.
• Put fabric in washer.
  
• Take bucket back to bathroom while water heater heats.
  
• Rinse off tools and containers thoroughly, making sure there is no color in the bathtub. Leave items to dry.

• Go back to laundry room and wash fabric using hot water (140°F/60°C). If rinse isn't clear, wash a second time. (I added an extra soak cycle for good measure.)
  

Here's my result:

Bright green 7158 was a more blue-green or grass green color rather than the yellow-green or chartreuse 706 of the original yarn. However, color 706 wasn't available. If the sweater fades again, next time I might overdye with a lemon yellow. I'm glad I only left it in the dye vat for 20 minutes, as I didn't want the light-dark value of the sweater to change. The overdye is subtly heathered.

Start to finish this only takes a couple hours. In fact, it took me longer to write this blog post than it did to overdye the sweater. If your faded sweater has multiple colors, this isn't going to work. But if this is an all-one-color sweater, overdyeing can bring new life to a favorite garment.