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I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but dyeing acrylic yarn at home is not necessarily a good idea. Dyeing wool yarn can be easy and safe, but dying acrylic is not. For your first dyeing projects, please try natural fibers, instead.
Ordinary dyes used for wool or cotton will not color acrylic. Acrylic is an entirely synthetic material which will not hold on to the dyes that work for natural fibers. All-purpose dye, such as Rit Tint and Dye, will not produce acceptable results. Neither will the fiber reactive dyes that work so well on cotton, such as Procion MX, nor the acid dyes that work well on wool, including food coloring. All of these dyes will just wash out, leaving at most a temporary stain.
Buy dyes in liquid or paste form when possible; mix powders inside glove box, hood, or wear respirator; wear gloves; install canopy hood over dye bath.A glove box may be constructed from lucite panels, glued together, with holes to which heavy gloves have been attached, so that you can reach in to manipulate dye powders without contaminating the air you are breathing. A canopy hood contains fans to exhaust air to the outside, preventing or reducing exposure to fumes. Basic dyes appear to be easy to use (aside from the possibly onerous health protections), can be used for hand-painting, and result in particularly brilliant colors, which are quite washfast on acrylic. However, they dye everything permanantly, including your containers, your sink, your counter, your floor, or anything else they get on to, unlike most other types of dye, and they may be much more hazardous than the other dye classes. They are not for use by the beginner, certainly, and not for use by many experts, either.
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lists Sennelier Tinfix as being basic dyes, though it is widely assumed by many dyers that these are acid dyes.
I believe that Jacquard Wood & Reed Dyes are also basic dyes, but have not confirmed this. They write, "Wood and Reed Dye is designed for a whole range of dry natural materials: straw, grasses, raffia, leaves, potpourri, shell, bone, dried flowers, bamboo and even acrylic. This dye is strong! It will produce bright, even colors that are water fast to tap water."
When buying Basic dye, be sure to request a separate MSDS sheet for each dye color!
For 1 lb dry fabric, medium intensity:One US source of basic dyes, Aljo Dyes, provides a small amount of information on how to use Basic dyes (which they sell under the name of "Alcohol/water dyes"), but only for use as a silk paint: Batik Oetoro gives instructions for immersion dyeing with Basic dyes, which they sell under the brand name of Sandocryl: In summary, use an amount of dye that weighs from 1% to 3% of the weight of the acrylic to be dyed, plus 2.5 ml of 30% acetic acid per liter of water (equivalent to 27.5 ml of 5% strength distilled white vinegar), plus at least 2 gallons of water per pound of acrylic; the dye and acid are dissolved in cold water, in a non-food-use cooking pot, and the acrylic fiber is added to the cold dyebath before bringing it to a boil. The acrylic is then boiled in the dyebath for an hour, before allowing the dyebath to cool off, preferably overnight. Dyes.co.uk gives more detailed instructions on immersion dyeing with basic dyes. Clariant gives more information for industrial use of Basic dyes (If any of these links ever break, just go directly to the company's web site and look around.)
1 tsp dye [**NOTE: 1 tsp = 5 ml; 1 tbs = 15 ml**]
1 tbs acetic acid (equivalent to 11 tbs or 165 ml vinegar at 5% strength)
2.5 - 3 gal water (10 - 12 liters) Dissolve the dye in a small amount of hot water, add to dyebath, stir well, add acetic acid, stir well, add the wetted-out fabric. Over 30 to 60 minutes slowly raise the temperature of the dyebath to approx. 205 degrees F. (for silk, no higher than 185 degrees F.)
Basic dyes ('basic' as in the opposite of acidic, not as in 'back to basics') are said to be very bright, and particularly washfast on acrylic, although they're not washfast enough for practical use on protein fibers, such as wool, and do not bind to cotton at all unless the cotton has first been mordanted. Oddly, pre-dyeing with a direct dye can serve for mordanting on cotton. In dyeing reeds, raffia, grasses, and barks, these substances' natural tannin content acts as a mordant for Basic dyes.
Basic dyes are cationic, which means that the colored part has a positive charge, when they are dissolved in water. They will bond to either carboxyl or sulfonic acid groups on a fiber, via the formation of salt links with these anionic groups in the fiber.
Basic dyes can be used to dye wool or cotton, but they do not perform well, tending to fade in sunlight quite badly. The first synthetic dye, Mauve, discovered by William Henry Perkin in 1856, was a basic dye, almost a century before the development of acrylic fiber by DuPont, in 1944.
| C.I. Name | color description | examples of dye name |
|---|---|---|
| basic yellow 2 | bright yellow | ORCOZINE Yellow OX |
| basic yellow 11 | red shade yellow | ORCOZINE Yellow R |
| basic yellow 13 | bright greenish yellow | YELLOW SANDOCRYL SHINING B6GL, Acrylene Brilliant Yellow 6G; ORCOZINE Yellow L |
| basic yellow 21 | bright greenish yellow | ORCOZINE Yellow 7GLL |
| basic yellow 28 | workhorse dye | Acrylene Golden Yellow GL; ORCOZINE Golden Yellow GL |
| basic yellow 29 | medium yellow | Acrylene Yellow 2GL; ORCOZINE Yellow 6DL |
| basic yellow 37 | bright greenish yellow | ORCOZINE Yellow SFK |
| basic yellow 40 | fluorescent yellow | Acrylene Flavine 10GFF; ORCOZINE Brilliant Yellow 10GFF |
| basic yellow 56 | YELLOW SANDOCRYL CORN | |
| basic yellow 82 | YELLOW SANDOCRYL GOLD BGRL | |
| basic orange 1 | dull yellowish orange | ORCOZINE Orange RS |
| basic orange 2 | yellowish orange | ORCOZINE Chrysoidine 4 |
| basic orange 14 | Acridine Orange (see my Ph.D. dissertation) | |
| basic orange 21 | bright yellowish | ORCOZINE Orange G |
| basic orange 37 | YELLOW SANDOCRYL GOLD BRLE | |
| basic orange 57 | YELLOW SANDOCRYL GOLD BRLN | |
| basic orange 58 | ORANGE SANDOCRYL B3RLN | |
| basic red 1 | Rhodamine G (known mutagen) | |
| basic red 10 also known as acid red 52 (& basic violet 10?) | true UV fluorescent | Rhodamine B (often contaminated with some Rhodamine G); sold by ProChem and Jacquard Products: see Washfast Acid Dyes |
| basic red 14 | bright fluorescent red | ORCOZINE Brilliant Red |
| basic red 15 | bluish fluorescent red | Acrylene Brilliant Red B; ORCOZINE Brilliant Red BN |
| basic red 18 | dull red | ORCOZINE Red GTL |
| basic red 22 | bright bluish red | RED SANDOCRYL BBLE; ORCOZINE Red B |
| basic red 27 | RED SANDOCRYL SHINING BF | |
| basic red 44 | RED SANDOCRYL B2GLE | |
| basic red 46 | bright bluish workhorse red; stable to high pH and temp | RED SANDOCRYL BRLN; AcryleneRed GRL; ORCOZINE Red GRL |
| basic red 49 | bluish fluorescent red | ORCOZINE Brilliant Red FBB |
| basic red 54 | RED SANDOCRYL B2GLN | |
| basic red 59 | SANDOCRYL RUBY BRLN | |
| basic red 75 | SANDOCRYL ROSE SHINING B5B | |
| basic red 104 | RED SANDOCRYL BRL | |
| basic red 181 | Acrylene Red G | |
| basic violet 1 | bluish violet | ORCOZINE Methyl Violet 2BP |
| basic violet 14 | bright reddish violet | ORCOZINE Fuchsine SB |
| basic violet 16 | red violet | ORCOZINE Rhodine BL |
| basic violet 48 | PURPLE SANDOCRYL B2RLN | |
| basic blue 3 | bright greenish blue; good pH stability | BLUE SANDOCRYL B3G, Acrylene Blue 5G; ORCOZINE Blue 3G |
| basic blue 9 | greenish blue | Methylene Blue [sold by Aljo]; ORCOZINE Blue B (see my Ph.D. dissertation) |
| basic blue 7 | bright blue | ORCOZINE Pure Blue BO |
| basic blue 17 | toluidine blue O (see my Ph.D. dissertation) | |
| basic blue 22 | BLUE SANDOCRYL BFE | |
| basic blue 41 | bright blue workhorse dye | Acrylene Blue GRL; ORCOZINE Blue GRLA |
| basic blue 54 | bright royal blue | ORCOZINE Fast Blue 6GL-WC |
| basic blue 73 | BLUE SANDOCRYL B2GLE | |
| basic blue 120 | BLUE SANDOCRYL B3GLE | |
| basic green 4 | bright bluish green | Malachite Green [sold by Aljo]; ORCOZINE Green V |
| basic brown 13 | BROWN SANDOCRYL YELLOW BRLE | |
| basic brown 14 | BROWN SANDOCRYL YELLOW BRLN |
Batik Oetoro sells Clariant's Sandocryl Modified Basic Dyes, in yellow, orange, red, pink, rhodamine, blue, turquoise, violet, green, and black.
Another major problem with Basic dyes is that they dye everything. If you spill a little bit of Procion MX dye on your countertop, it may not be the smartest thing you ever did, but you can usually wash it right off, with a bit of help from some chlorine-containing scouring powder at worst. If you spill Basic dye, the color is permanent.
DO NOT allow any of the dye powder to fall on the floor, counters, tables, etc. Clean up all spills immediately as mandated in the specific instructions in the MSDS. DO NOT breathe any of the dye powder! Wear substantial waterproof gloves, preferably not the thin latex gloves commonly worn when working with safer dyes, and DO NOT allow your gloves to get a hole in them.
Allergenicity
Occasionally, someone develops a contact allergy to dyes in clothing. Most articles describing this, that I've seen, have involved disperse dyes. However, dermatitis sometimes results from wearing clothing dyed with the dye whose generic name is Basic
Red 46. (See Foot dermatitis caused by the textile dye Basic Red 46 in acrylic blend socks, by
Opie J., Lee A., Frowen K., Fewings J., and Nixon R., in Contact Dermatitis, December 2003, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 297-303(7).
selected MSDS information
Many MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheets) say that the product has not been thoroughly tested, so information is not available about particular hazards. The absence of a known hazard in the MSDS is not proof that the substance is not carcinogenic or mutagenic. Be careful.
Here is a typical statement, quoted from an MSDS for Basic Red 1 (rhodamine 6G):
Rhodamine B is a true fluorescent basic dye which is also sold by many suppliers of hand dyes as an acid dye for use on wool and other protein fibers; it is classified as "Health Rating: 3 - Severe (Cancer Causing)" in the SAF-T-DATA Ratings in a Rhodamine B MSDS provided by JT Baker, though it also says "There is limited evidence that this material causes cancer in laboratory animals. There is no evidence that this material causes cancer in humans. "
From an MSDS for Methylene Blue (basic blue 9):
From an MSDS for auramine yellow (basic yellow 2):
In summary, there is ample evidence that there is reason to be cautious in the use of some Basic dyes.
Last updated: February 5, 2009
Page created: May 5, 2005
Downloaded: Friday, November 20, 2009