Dyeing with Dylon
Dylon is a readily-available cold water reactive dye. I found mine at Pacific Fabrics in Issaquah. I have also seen this at Hancock Fabrics. This procedure was so easy it's almost scary!
A caveat from Dylon: The situation with cashmere is that it is such a delicate fabric that if made-up garments are moved around even slightly too much during the dyeing process, they can go irrevocably out of shape. Since they are such high value items, the risk of customer dissatisfaction and costly compensation claims was judged to be excessive which is why we normally advise against dyeing cashmere. There is no question of dyeing causing deterioration of fibre or colour.
Since we are discussing dyeing yarns, not finished garments, I don't believe this is going to cause a problem. Also, it is my opinion that if you DID dye a garment and it got out of shape, you could easily block it back to its original shape. It's your call...so here we go!
The Dylon packaging is clearly marked "for natural fibers." Each package is supposed to dye 8 ounces of fabric, so I used four 2-ounce skeins of Milkberry, which is cashmere/angora/silk in a natural creamy white (undyed) color. The package also stated that dyeing "wools" (by which I assume they meant protein fibers) would result in a lighter color than if this dye was used on cotton or other plant fibers.
Here are the instructions for dyeing protein fibers with Dylon. These are included in the box, but I reproduce them here (paraphrased) so you can see if this is the method for you. See the bottom for notes about our particular dye experience.
You will need the following supplies:
Soak your skeins in a bowl of plain water, making sure to get them thoroughly soaked. Some dye manufacturers recommend adding a little dish soap or Orvus (horse shampoo) to your soak water to help 'wet' it (you know...to help it absorb the water...otherwise the skeins may simply float on the water). Dylon didn't recommend that, so I didn't do it - just wanted to see how it went if we did it 'by the book.' I did have to push them under the surface of the water and squeeze them to get the water into all parts of the skein. (Orvus is available at feed stores and larger vets as well as some equestrian stores on the web, but I have only found it in 8-lb jars. I bought one in 2001 and am still working my way through it.)
Meanwhile, while the skeins are soaking, mix your dye, 1.3 cups white vinegar, and enough water to cover the skeins, in your big dye pot. Make sure to stir it thoroughly so that there are no dry clumps of dye floating on the surface of the water. Another way to do this to make sure your dye clumps are all gone is to put the dye with a little water into a closed jar or bottle and shake it really vigorously, then add this to the water/vinegar in the dye pot.
When the skeins are thoroughly wet, put them in the dye bath. Make sure all parts of them are submerged unless you are going for a dyed-and-white look.
Let it sit for an hour. No cooking required!
This next bit I did entirely outside, since it was a nice day.
Take the skeins out of the pot, squeeze them out, drape them over a broomstick suspended between two lawn chairs. Use the garden hose to gently rinse them (from the top down) until the water runs clear. This should be a fairly quick process; most of the dye will have been absorbed into the skeins and not be left in the runoff water.
Squeeze each skein out (starting at the pole and going downward). Use your fingers to spread the strands of the skeins out along the broomstick so the air can circulate.
My yarn was dry in about 3 hours sitting in the warm Pacific sunshine.
Notes about this experience: first of all, the color I had around the house was not a good one to experiment with. It was called "Cafe au Lait." The finished skeins look like undyed brown cashmere. I would have liked something more vibrant to test the intensity, but didn't have time to go to the store for a different color.
Second of all, there are a few patches where the dye must not have been thoroughly mixed. I have a few patches of burgundy on these skeins (not enough to call it a 'design element' but too much to pass off as unnoticeable. This could happen in any situation where you are not using pure red, blue or yellow, because dye manufacturers simply mix the base primaries in powder form to result in all the other colors. So there will be (for example) blue and yellow powders mixed in a green dye, and you may end up with small patches of either blue or yellow when using that color dye. But thorough stirring should do it.
Lastly, there were a few places where the dye did not penetrate to the center of the skein and I have white patches. Again this is too noticeable to ignore, and again this was my fault for not wetting the skeins more thoroughly and spreading them out more in the dye bath.
All of these "problems" will be surmounted when I use this yarn and overdye with a red shade from Jacquard, which will eliminate the burgundy, cover up the white, and liven up the brown. There will still be a few unusual patches but in hats or scarves they may be relatively unnoticeable.
In summary I believe this would be a good method for dyeing, especially for newbies. You may want to purchase some cheap wool to practice on. Dylon is about $2.50 a packet.