The Yarn Bleeding Experiment, Part 5

This week in Part 5 of the Yarn Bleeding Experiment, we’re testing out another wool wash – Eucalan!

If you haven’t already, head back and read Parts 1-4 first, so you know what’s going on.

Jump Links

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Experiment
Part 3: Round One – Temperature
Part 4: Round Two – Wool Wash (Soak)
Part 5: Round Two – Wool Wash (Eucalan)
Part 6: Round Two – White Vinegar
Part 7: Round Two – Washing Up Liquid
Part 8: Round Three – Colour Catcher
Part 9: Results & Conclusion

Okay, all caught up? Great.

Not all wool washes are created equal. Neither Soak nor Eucalan claim to prevent bleeding, but Eucalan does state that it is pH neutral. As we know from Part 1, adding acid to the water is an important part of dyeing yarn in the first place, so it’s not a big stretch to imagine that avoiding acidity in the blocking bath might insure against bleeding.

Last week, I talked about the emotional response I have to the smell of Soak, but the experiment showed that Soak might be causing a bit more bleeding in some colours, like my beloved blues. So maybe I should switch to Eucalan?

Let’s try it out.

I had handy 5ml sachets of Eucalan too, so I added some to the 3L jug of tap water, once again mixed to 50C / 122F.

If you remember, this was the temperature with the most bleeding from Round One. I’m using the temp with the most bleeding here because I need it to bleed in order to see if Eucalan makes it bleed more or less. If I used something that didn’t bleed at all, or didn’t bleed much, I wouldn’t be able to see if Eucalan *reduced* bleeding.

As with the temperature tests, I measured the pH of the water and its hardness (TDS) before pouring out 300ml for each blocking bath. The results were interesting this time!

The pH was 6.94, which is suuuuuper close to neutral (7). It’s the tiniest little bit acidic (<7) and more acidic than any of the previous tests. So on the one hand, it’s backing up Eucalan’s claim of being pH neutral, but on the other hand, it’s nudged the pH into the acidic range.

TDS was interesting too – 344 mg/L, which is the highest, i.e. the hardest, so far, but not too far away from the 50C water from round one (which was 322 mg/L).

The water was measured out, 300ml per swatch, and left to soak for half an hour. Again, I videoed the soaking, and will share all the timelapses when Round Two is complete.

Here’s some comparison photos of the results. From left to right: 50C from Round One; Soak from last week; Eucalan from this week.

I think the Eucalan results are pretty similar to the Soak results. There’s less bleeding from the Navy, but still more than with no wool wash at all. I rated them all the same: 2 (significant bleed) for all colours except Storm, bottom left, which I rated 1 (some bleed).

This week’s conclusion is that when it comes to bleeding, there’s not much difference between Soak and Eucalan in the actual results, and both have a minimal negative effect on how much bleeding happens for most colours.

Next week I’ll be trying out what happens when I add vinegar to the blocking bath. What do you think will happen?