Fiber Monday - We have color

Being knee deep in school planning means that there was very little fiber related things happening here this past week. I did finally gather the tools I needed to start dyeing and the dye I ordered arrived, so I took some time to mix up a few dye stocks. I felt like a mad scientist with mask, protective eye wear, and gloves weighing out dye powder and measuring liquid. No, I didn't get a photo. Sorry. 

With the dye stock made, I wanted to try drying one of the fleeces I have. I chose the one that was the least nice. It has a lot of vegetable matter in it and is going to be a pain to card into something spinnable. If I did something horrible to it, it wouldn't be the end of the world. Dyeing was also the perfect thing to do while I was planning because it involves a lot of waiting. I would put a part of the fleece to soak in water and go back to the books. Then I would get the dye pot ready and go back to the books. I would check on the process and either go back to the books or turn off the heat depending on what it looked like. Then it just had to cool, so I went back to the books. You get the idea. 

I did manage to get the whole fleece dyed. The first section turned out much lighter than I was expecting.


The next day I weighed the next section. It weighed much more than the previous day's did and I realized that I had made an error in weighing which meant I put far less dye stock in the pot than I needed. I remedied that for this section. There is a lot more color in this one. (You can also see the vegetable matter I was referring to. This is going to be no fun to deal with.)


With the third section I had the idea to try to get it a color somewhere in between the first two, thinking I would create a gradient yarn with it. You can't really tell from the photo (I was trying to take a picture while the fleece was hanging in my fleece drying set-up), but it is a little bit lighter, though not as much as I had hoped.


While there is quite a bit of science and math involved in the process, there also seems to be a bit of art as well... and some experience with how things turn out. There is a reason why dyers tend to refer to it as their dye practice. 

It is a lot of fun to discover what the color looks like when you take it out of the dye pot. I am kind of itching to dye the other fleeces I have. I have twelve colors to play with and those can be mixed to make more colors. It will be a fun experiment.

I did do a little spinning this week as well. I am very close to finishing the spinning on this wool/silk mixture that I've been working on. I think I should have it all done by next week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Making bias tape... otherwise known as the Sew, Mama, Sew! Giveaway

Image
( Sorry, the contest is now closed .... though you're welcome to leave a comment if you like.) It's Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway time again.  I love bias tape.  It is so useful and so easy to use... finishing edges ... finishing seams ...  And while the pre-packaged stuff has it's place and I use it often, I really like to have patterned bias tape as well.  Enter one of my favorite little tools: the bias tape maker.  This one make 3/4 inch bias tape and I will be giving one away at the end of this post.  But first, I thought some of you might like to see what it does if you've never used one before. I don't have a rotary cutter, nice cutting mats, or even a proper cutting table (I cut-out things on my floor), so if I can do this, so can you.  Here is my admittedly quirky method. Step 1:  Lay out the fabric and fold a corner over to find the bias.  The woven threads should be at right angles to the part you turned up. Step 2:  Using a ruler and some sort of mark
Read more

Apple picking in the rain

Image
Today was our planned day to go and pick apples.  It was raining off and on, but when it comes to fruit, we don't let a little water get in our way so off we went.  We met our friends and enjoyed their company and picked a lot of apples (3 1/2 bushels).  We also ate quite a few. G.  L. K.  (with an apple nearly as big as his head) P8, TM and L. Now, I don't know about you, but even picking 7 bags of apples does not take us very long.  It's a shame to drive so far only to turn around and go home, so we packed lunches, headed to a park, and enjoyed the now sunny weather. TM and P8 A good day all around.  Of course now I have to do something with all these apples...
Read more

Kenzie on the beach

Image
We have made it back home. I am feeling a little more balanced, but it was hard saying goodbye to a house we've created such meaningful memories in for the past 34 years. I'll write more about both later.  In the meantime enjoy pictures of Kenzie living his best life as a beach dog.  Note the ears blowing in the wind (Photo credit TM) (Photo credit for the rest MC)
Read more