Name: Irene
Message: Hello from Perth.
I would like to dye a Turkish Kilim rug. It is approx 3m x 2m, weighs 2 kgs and is wool. It's old, in reasonable condition and I just want to change the colours. It has a lot of yellow, mustard and pale green with red and black as the background. It's the yellow and mustard that I'd most like to change. Can you recommend dye and quantity and method and how I can purchase the dye from you. I'm not looking fora perfect rug by any means, any colour change will be an improvment. Many thanks

You can't purchase any dye from me; I don't sell dye. However, you can find a great many different dye supply companies, including some in Australia, on my page listing Sources of Supplies for Dyeing.

Are you planning to dye the rug one color, or apply dye by carefully painting it in some places? If you dye the whole rug with red dye, the red and black will remain approximately the same color, the yellow will turn orange, the mustard will turn brownish orange, and the green will turn brown. If you want to keep the red and black the same color as they currently are, I would not recommend any other color than red.

Wool dyes well with acid dye, as long as there is nothing such as a stain-resistant coating on it to prevent the dye from reaching the fiber. Generally, heat is also required; however, there are a few recipes that, very conveniently, use the heat of the sun to do this; for example, see "Cold Batch Dyeing of Wool with Reactive Dye" (it's a PDF file). You can substitute Procion MX type dye for the Cibacron F dye called for in that recipe. If you prefer to use acid dye, consider the instructions for "Rainbow Dyeing with the Power of the Sun".