Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Dye day

Today we had a "Dye day" for the Spinners Guild.
We met at a spinners house, brought out crock pots, woks and pots and dyed up a storm.
I brought some of the fleece that was gifted to me at my first guild meeting--and dyed some of it.
I did some red, purple, yellow/orange and did some in ammonia.
We are learning about natural dyes as we are to put together a "Christmas Tree" full of natural
handspun/handwoven items for a Christmas fund raiser.
Basically--to ammonia dye, you put ammonia and water in a LARGE jar with a piece of copper pipe.
Let it sit out for a week or so and then you can add roving, fleece and/or yarn to it.
It actually only takes a few minutes to take the colour.
I ended up with a silvery blue colour--which when washed might change/lighten again.

Some pictures:


This is Sandra, whose house we were at:

This little cute log cabin is her "studio". She has antique wheels,
handspun hanging all over on pegs, felted items, paintings etc etc etc.

Some of the fruits of our labour (some of mine is on the far left):


We used a combination of food colouring and acid dyes. Sometimes all at the same time.
I am definitely going to be looking for an old crock pot or deep fryer (yes they used a deep fryer)
for dyeing some stuff.
I also learned how to use combs for combing fleece. I tried to comb some of that gifted fleece, but it was too sticky and didn't comb.
It needs a good soaking and then maybe I'll get some dog combs to work through it.

I did my own dyeing yesterday:
"SARAH" roving


"PRINCESS B" (named after my daughter who loves all things Pink and Purple)


and some yarn (which is not in the shop yet)

This is done in the current Project Spectrum colours of
Red, Black and Metallics.

I will
reskein it and put it up in the shop tomorrow.
Or you can e-mail me (
sprouty25 AT gmail DOT com) if you are interested.
$18.00 US plus shipping ($6 for USA, $2 for Canada, $8 international)

Oh, and I have a sock:

It took me 2 nights (about 2.5 hours each) and about and hour yesterday to finish.
My second ball had a little 2 y/old helper--and now it is tangled (of course) --so I wont' be casting on right away.
It's just a toe up sock based on Wendy's generic toe up pattern. Do a gauge swatch, measure your foot--knit. I split the skein in half so I would have equal yardage for each sock.
I did a 3X1 ribbing for the left and just knit until the ball was finished.
Too bad it's crazy hot here, or I'd be wearing it.....

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