Crafty Critters – I dyed my Rope!

I’m so excited about this project – I just had to share!

I made a new kinky friend through my holiday travels and her entire BDSM toy bag is pastel pink – including her rope.

Combine this with my newest obsession of what my Owner affectionately calls “Bimbo’ pink

I just had to dye my rope.

I was very good and did my research before I got over-excited and found a tutorial on Rope Connections. Which I followed pretty much to the letter. 

What I used

• 2x 8m lengths of Jute 
• 2x 4m lengths of Jute
• 1x Packet of Rit Fuchsia All purpose Dye
• 1 cup of salt 
• Heavy duty thread
• Scissors
• A bucket
• Stock pot

What I did 

Before anything I whipped the ends of my rope. 

Whipping is when you knot/wrap a thin twine around the end of your rope to prevent it from fraying. 

This is totally optional

I chose to whip the ends of my rope because I hate getting pinched by knotted ends as they are pulled through ties. And I unfortunately have an amazing talent to constantly get pinched by knotted ends of rope…

Other reasons for choosing whipped ends are that it looks pretty and that my rope top is comfortable tying rope with whipped ends (I checked). 

To whip my rope I just followed this video!

Onto the dying process!

Rope Soup

As Rope Connections recommended I boiled my rope

The small rope kit I have was gifted to me by a teacher from the local rope group and he treated it in his own secret ways.

I figured a good soak would hopefully remove any oils or wax that might prevent the dye from working properly. 

An hour later I found that I had definitely made the right choice. The mix of oils, dust and sweat made for a… funky broth at best.

Needless to say I rinsed my rope a few more times after that …

Dye Bath

After detangling my rope I wound it up into loose coils like Rope Connections suggested and placed it into the dye bath (made according to the packet’s instructions). And spent the next 30 minutes feeling like witch stirring my concoctions – It was pretty fun

I then left it overnight

And the next night

And the next three nights after that because I got busy…

Eventually I got back to my rope project and drained the dye bath.

My rope was red.. Wine red. Not quite the vibe I was looking for. 

I self soothed by yet again re reading rope connections tutorial

It was fine it would lighten... right?

Drying my rope 

After running my rope through a cold gentle machine wash (no soap!) I set to drying my rope 

So unlike every rigger in existence I don’t have rafters where I live 

and even if I did I don’t think I’d be tall enough to use them!

The tutorial said rope needs to be dried under tension so it doesn’t go all weird 

So that rope was going to be dried under tension one way or the other!

That way ended up being a metal drying rack for laundry 

It didn’t look as cool as the Rope Connections drying method but it worked! 

and I feel like it’s a little more stealthy if the family decides to pop around for a surprise visit

Treating my Rope

After all this effort it was finally time to finish off this little project. It was highly encouraged to finish off dying your rope with an oil treatment – with some further reading I found that this was most often jojoba oil. 

Which got me thinking.. 

I’m a bit of a skin care nut and one of my regulars is a jojoba and rose oil mix – it smells amazing and it makes my skin feel amazing. I just love it to pieces. 

What could be more personalised that rope that smells like me?

So I used my skin care oils to treat my rope and it worked so well!

My rope is all shiny and smells so nice!

Some things I learnt during this project

If you choose to whip your rope – cut the knots off before you dye it! Otherwise your ends will look a little bit like this 

I had intended to follow Rope Connection’s advice on untwisting and dip dying your rope section by section prior to soaking it (so the inside of the rope is dyed as well instead of staying brown) but I got blisters about one length in and gave up.

If you can get a friend to help and follow his advice! 

The brown flecks are a real let down after all the work it takes to dye your rope.

I plan on getting some help to re-dye my rope set as soon as I can!

The Finished Project

All in all I am so pleased with how this project came out!