Name: Carol
Message: I'm looking for some pointers for dyeing fabric that is a silk/hemp blend with low water immersion or tie-dye type techniques. Not so much single solid colours, but bright colours vs pastel heathered effects are the goal. I have Procion MX, but it is about 6 yrs old. I'm happy to go out and get more dye, but if it's not necessary, that'd be even better. 8-) Thanks for a fantastically useful site (and blog)!

Dyeing hemp is very much like dyeing cotton, as both are cellulose type fibers. Silk is a very interesting fiber. It can be dyed like wool with acid dyes, but, unlike wool, it can also be used with the same soda ash recipe that is used for cotton. You will do fine, with this blend, if you just follow the usual cotton recipes for tie-dyeing, LWI, or other ways of applying fiber reactive dye to cotton.

Your Procion MX dye may be too old. You might want to order some fresh dye. I have successfully used Procion MX type dye that is several years old, but it does go bad with time. If some but not all of the dye has gone bad, you can use a larger amount of dye, and be sure to give the dye plenty of time to react (leave it overnight). Then wash out in cool water before washing in hot water. If the dye is too far gone, it will almost all wash out, and you will get pale colors which need to be overdyed.

Old MX dye can be used with an acid dyeing recipe, with vinegar and heat, to dye silk, but the acid recipe will not dye the hemp at all well.

I think that the initial cool water washing, after dyeing, is especially vital with old dye. If your initial washing is in hot water, it may encourage the unattached dye to act like the direct dye in an all-purpose dye mixture, gradually washing out over the course of many washings, rather than washing out efficiently.