Trying to dye Black... (part two and a half - Americolor)

After the yarn dried from the first post, I knew I was going to want to try overdyeing it, since there were a lot of uneven spots.

I soaked the yarn in plain warm water, and prepared my dyestock. This time I used 10 drops of the Americolor Super Black food colouring, and added my 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt to the water.  I let it sit and come up to temperature slowly, then added my citric acid mix. In total there were about 3 tablespoons, added one at a time, in probably 15-20 minute intervals. I really did not take good notes on this overdye because I was doing a few other things at the time. Will pay more attention next time.

The yarn and dye probably stayed on the stove for about 3 or 4 hours total.  At one point, I had to leave to run an errand, so I turned the stove off, and then turned it back on when I got back, added the last of the tablespoons of acid mix, let it go for about another hour, and then turned it off

I let the water cool and exhaust completely, noticing that the blue took quite a long time to strike this time. But the water did come our fairly clear.  In my defence, when you have a very pale blue in the water, and are using a grey pot, it can be hard to tell if it is completely clear. It was only when I was dumping it down the sink that I noticed a hint of blue.

I washed and dried the  yarn as usual. I lost a little bit of colour when washing, but not much. Not nearly as much as with my Dark Chocolate yarn, where I think I rinsed out at least half of what I put in. Which is why I only used half the amount of colour in the overdye.

Once the yarn was dried, I noticed a few things.  First off, it was pretty much the spitting image of my Dark Chocolate yarn.

This is my Dark Chocolate yarn

And this is the Americolor Black.  

 Other than the lighter spot on the Dark Chocolate yarn, they are almost identical.  Looks like I forgot to colour balance the top one, so it is a little more yellow, which makes it look a little lighter, but they are the same. I held what was left of the Dark Chocolate up to this yarn, and sure enough, you couldn't tell them apart.

And second, those little red fuzzy bits are determined to stay little red fuzzy bits. Even after two sessions in the dye bath, they stayed red fuzzies.

One of the red fuzzy bits. There is on that is about 4 or 5 inches long and was wound into the yarn.I had to pull it out once the yarn was dry. This red fuzzy will be pulled out too

So the reds seems to strike quite well, but the blue is almost no where to be found. Which makes this yarn look brown in some lights, almost purple in others, and, if you look closely, you can actually pick out the sections of the twists that took the reds more than other colours.

I am wondering if trying to overdye it a third time with a dark blue would help any, though I am hesitant to try it, because I really like this shade, and have already picked out a few colours to use with it to make more mosaic socks.  

Maybe if the next black does not work, I will try it on that one.  For my next attempt, I am going to try the Wilton No Break Black.  I don't use the pots very often though, so I need to do some research on how much to use.  So stay tuned for that post later this week.