Name: John
Message: Hi Paula, Thanks for the great site!!!
With regards to soda ash, is it reuseable? If I mix a gallon of it and soak my shirts to be dyed in it when I wring out the excess can I do it into the bucket of soda ash and reuse it? Also, when using urea, do I mix the dye in the urea water or do I mix the dye and add some urea water to it?

Yes, soda ash solution is reusable indefinitely. The soda ash stays good for months, at least, after being dissolved in water. Nothing can grow in it. Put a lid (or a board) on the bucket so nothing falls in (such as rain). If evaporation is likely to be an issue, then, after finishing with using the soda ash, put a mark on the bucket at the level of the top, and then just add extra water to make up for the evaporation before using it again. Make a new mark after the next use, since the level will go down as you soak items in it.

As for urea, I generally find it convenient to mix a quarter cup of urea in a quart of water and then add the dye to portions of that, but urea is so easy to dissolve that there's no reason not to add a tablespoon (15 ml) of dry urea to a cup (250 ml) of dissolved dye, and stir or shake it in. I've done this on occasion after forgetting the urea at first, with no discernible difference. I would not want to add already-dissolved urea to dye mixtures because that would require an additional step of calculating how much to add, and dissolving more dye to begin with since the urea water would dilute it. I don't always use urea, but it's good to use urea when tie-dyeing, as it helps to keep the fabric damp long enough for the dye to fully react with it.

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