I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on that I’ve been working on but haven’t yet written about, so I think what I’m going to do is write several posts in the next few days. I finally took the time to take some pictures today while listening to podcasts. I keep using the lack of sun as an excuse, but I’ve just had a hard time getting motivated to blog, so here goes an attempt at revival…

I’ve decided to try doing at least one non-knitting non-spinning craft every Sunday, and without really planning it last Sunday I chose dyeing. I’ve had these two skeins of handspun white merino lace weight yarn for a while that I’ve been meaning to dye. My dyeing methods are very haphazard because I just don’t have the patience or the scale to be meticulous and specific. Basically I fill my dyeing pot with lots of water, pour in some vinegar, mix some dye powder with a little water and pour that in. Then I put my soaked skein into the dye pot and turn up the heat. I do have a digital thermometer whose probe I use only for dyeing to make sure it doesn’t go above 180 degrees, and generally I go for a half hour around 180. This time I really wanted a green yarn so I took a bit of my blue and a bit of my yellow and mixed them together. It’s been a while since I dyed yarn, so my memory of how much dye powder I normally use was a bit vague, and the results of my yarn prove that.

What seemed to happen was that there was so much dye in the pot that it took barely ten minutes for the yarn to soak up the dye and set. I did a thorough rinse of the yarn afterward to ensure it had taken hold, and boy did it. This quick dyeing also gave the yarn a really unique quality that I really like. It looks slightly variegated, but that’s mostly because the dye stuck fast to the very outside of the yarn, and didn’t sink in quite as much towards the core. It gives it a sort of shimmery look that I totally could not have predicted.

There was some extra dye left in the pot, so I stuck a little red in with the tiny bit of green and finally added some color to my sampler of handspun angora (ignore the darker red as those are just the ties of a different yarn).

Then I had a teeny bit of that left, so I put a very small amount of purple in and grabbed some white merino roving I had. I had the merino roving soaking in the bathroom sink, and didn’t have a way to transport it without making a mess on the floor. I stuck a trivet and the dye pot on the bathroom floor for easy transport. As soon as I put it in the dye absorbed into the fiber as much as it could and the water was white. Completely not what I was going for, but in the end I think it will make a nice yarn. I only stuck it back on the stove for another 15 minutes to make sure it set, and my roving only came out a tiny bit matted. Definitely easily fixed by predrafting it before spinning.

And another picture just ’cause it’s purty.

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