Dyeing Threads(Lots of Photos)

First, I hope all those in the United States had a fabulous 4th of July. I did!

I decided about a week ago to start dyeing threads for my Quaker Puzzle Ball. Why? Because I did not have enough of any one thread to stitch the piece up and I have white floss and dye.
First, I got this technique from      Melanie Testa  . Her book Inspired to Quilt has this technique in it.
Anyway,  I used Intense Blue and Silk Black by ProChemical

 And I put two different colors of floss on Stitch bows (a mystery blue and white)

 Stuck them in bags:

 Then I made my "soda ash" which is to get the pH correct for dyeing.

 We normally use a heaping 1/3 cup per gallon of water, but I just guessed:

 I soaked my threads in the soda ash:

 And then I mixed my dyes while wearing gloves:

 First up was blue:

 Test the color!( A very important step that I did not do later!)

 It was too bright so I started adding black dye powder:

 First try:

 Till I finally got what I thought I wanted:

 Into the bags went the dye! Just enough to soak the threads.

 After 24 hours I started the rinse process. Rinsing is why they are on stitch-bows. First cold water:

 Then hot water:

 I then  add a little synthrapol to aid in getting the dye from my threads.

 Then I placed my threads on paper towels to let them dry.

 But they still had dye coming out!

 So I got in a hurry and bundled the original mystery blues together and soaked them in soda ash:

Then I just mixed up some black dye with a little blue(but I didn't test it!)

 I was afraid they would be too dark so I pulled them out of the dye bath after 2 hours:

 After rinsing and rinsing and rinsing, this is what I had:

The threads on the left were the mystery blue, the ones on the bottom were the original white one and the ones to the right were thrown in during the last dye section. The bobinnated thread is marked 311 and is probably DMC. The dyed threads are all slightly variegated, but it is subtle. A lot of work and time. but they will be fun to stitch with.