I was recently asked a question I could not answer at the time. It was all about the EPiC yarn I sell on my website and am using a lot in my own tapestries these days. 

It concerned these three words on the label: Colorfastness not guaranteed.

I remember being surprised by this disclaimer when I first purchased the EPiC sample pack. I had not been overly concerned about it, but once in a while I reminded myself I should test some of the yarns myself. I put it off for a few weeks which soon turned into a month or more.

First I wrote to my sales rep for the company to see if Timeless Textiles knew of any specific colors that bled.

She responded that ‘colorfastness not guaranteed’ is a required phrase on yarn labeling and not an indication of bleeding. She added that they had not done any testing and were unaware of any being done, but also had not noted any bleeding in personal projects (although most didn’t require washing).

That 'colorfastness not guaranteed' is a required phrase on yarn labeling not an indication of known dye bleeding.

I looked up yarn labeling in the US and I didn’t see this requirement listed, but since EPiC is made in Portugal, I assume the EU requirements would apply. EU does require the manufacturer to test for color fastness.

So I finally got around to testing it this week.

I looked for the colors I’ve known to be most likely to bleed. Bright reds, blacks, navy blues.

Here’s where the knitting came in handy.

I had been putting this off because it was daunting to think of setting up a little loom to make little samples to test. I knew that I could just skein the yarn and test that way, but still put it off. My lightbulb moment was when I realized I could very quickly knit a little strip of colors to check for any bleeding!

Testing yarns for color fastness

I chose naturals to knit in-between the darker Anthractie, Madder, Garnet, and Coal Black. 

I first soaked the sample in cold water with a small amount of Eucalan, a product I always used for knitting.

No bleeding was noticed and the water remained clear.

I then decided to do a hot water test. In fact, I did a boiling water test. I heated up the electric kettle and when it reached a boil, poured over the sample. I left it for an hour and when I came back, I did notice a very light blush to the water. It appeared to be from the Madder.

I’m not concerned about this amount of bleeding which only occurred after pouring boiling point water on it. I mean, that’s not going to happen to my tapestry, right?

I later repeated this with rich purples and blue hues: Eggplant, Logwood, and Squid (love that name).

This time the results were different. I could see a very faint difference in water color after the cold water bath. That could be of more concern.

Then I repeated the rolling boil and after an hour soak, was (pleasantly) surprised to see no further signs of bleeding.

I’m still not overly concerned about this. However, if this type of bleeding does concern you (it might if you’re felting with it) there are ways to set the color.

Setting yarns for color fastness

I’ve done a fair amount of this in the past and it usually involved setting with vinegar if I remember correctly. Dyers will have had much more experience than I. However, I once did a design for Knitter’s magazine using a very well-known and readily available knitting yarn. 

When I soaked my first swatch, I was utterly shocked to see even the lightest of the colors bleed! This was to be knit into a patchwork sweater with 5 colors. I was horrified and immediately wrote to the editor, Rick Mondragon. He advised me to soak the pieces in Synthrapol first, rinse, then follow up with Eucalan. It was a lot of extra work, but it was successful. Luckily, the water cleared with the Eucalan.

Knitting does come in handy.

In my experience with designing knitwear over the past couple decades, I have always tested yarns early on in the process for color fastness, shrinkage, and / or blooming. In other words, any changes that occur from start to finish. But that’s because some knitting yarns change drastically after washing and since most everything I designed was made to wear, it needed to be washable. 

I was recently reminded of another aspect of knitwear design that could apply to tapestries. Determining how much yarn to use. I’ve been considering this more and more lately as I’m about to attempt a much larger project.

Measuring how much yarn is needed

Here is the method I always used for knitting. No reason I can think of that it wouldn’t apply to tapestry projects, too.

• Determine the total square inches (centimeters) needed. Knit a small swatch and measure it to get the number of square inches (centimeters) from the swatch.

• At this point, you can either unravel the swatch and measure the amount used- or my preferred method - weigh the swatch.

• Divide the total number of square inches (centimeters) needed by the number of square inches (centimeters) in the swatch. Then multiply that number by the amount of yarn used in the swatch to get the number of inches then yards (centimeters then meters) needed- or by the weight of the swatch to get the number of ounces (or grams).

If  using the yardage method, round up to allow for some excess.

If going by weight, the extra weight of the warp should contribute to the excess, although I would probably still round up.

Of course, this is for an overall total measurement. If the piece is split up into many colors (as a tapestry often is!) you’ll need to do more minute calculations.

Hmmm…I wonder how many more knitting tips I can apply to weaving…

Dyers, feel free to add your pearls of wisdom in the comments if you have a better method for setting color!