Here’s a little dyeing that snuck in under the radar. Four and a half ounces of who-know-what wool roving.
An Elegant Braid
Here’s a little dyeing that snuck in under the radar. Four and a half ounces of who-know-what wool roving.
An Elegant Braid
Someone remind me that silk is (literally and figuritively) a whole different animal than wool. And remind me especially when when I try to oven dye silk again. (I am assuming that there will be an “again.”) I didn’t have any huge goals in mind! I just wanted to dye 1 3/4 oz. of silk pink, and 3 oz. gray/blue. Well, here are the final products.
Voila
I must say, this yarn has grown on me. When it arrived in roving form I was a bit skeptical of its turning out well. It’s a heathered blueish-green. Very deep and rich in tone, but with a hint of gray. (For fellow spinners, this is the Ashland Bay “Mountain Meadow” top. Drafts well, and spins up nicely. I got mine from Copper Moose. In other places it might be listed as “Blue Green Colonial Top.”)
Heathered Yarn
While I was juggling the previous two skeins of yarn, I went ahead and dyed two batches of roving in the oven. Here’s the first one. It’s basically a second batch of the “Heather” colorway I did earlier in Thistles and Heather. I used brighter primaries for this one, so the colors are a little bolder. The roving is the same Romney mix I used for the first batch. I had to dig really deep into my stash to find it. All the recent purchases sort of got piled on top of it.
Heather The Second
You know you’ve been at it too long. You’d think I’d learn, wouldn’t you? Note to Self: Do not attempt to repeat the feat of dyeing two batches of roving and two skeins of yarn in four different colorways simultaneously. It doesn’t work well. You inevitably end up feeling rushed, cranking out things you don’t like as much, and spending too much time in the kitchen.
I’ve got the smell of vinegar hovering in my nose and the odd scent of dye solution clings right behind it. I can smell it now at the computer . . . although the computer is in the kitchen where the afore-mentioned things are simmering. Even my nice, clean, cool water glass smells like vinegar. And, I wound up spending way more time than I had planned, so I’m hogging the oven when my sister was supposed to be making a birthday cake! Aaaah! The results had better be worth it.
I had some extra dyes left over from the supposedly fall colorway and I didn’t want to waste them. Some roving was soaking and ready to go, so I grabbed one of them and started pouring. The final product is very much like a little tree frog!
Tree Frog Roving
Well, I tried for fall colors, but I ended up with this.
Dyed Roving
I had planned to do the six ounces of roving (they were in one-ounce strips) and put them in my two big enameled pots. Then I would pour the various dyes over them and heat set them.
After my foray into merino and silk I’ve found myself back in the wonderful, soft, sturdy, familiar world of corriedale wool. I’m spinning up twelve ounces of white corriedale roving for my aunt. Half of it will be spun first, and then the yarn will be dyed into a blue, green, yellow, and white combination. Here is the spun yarn.
Pre-spun Yarn
The other half (brown, red, blue, green, gold, orange) will be dyed while it’s still roving and then spun. The reason I’m dyeing it before spinning? Apparently when you dye first and then spin the colors get darker. I want the second colorway to be richer and deeper, so I’m trying this approach. I only hope that the colors won’t get muddier. I doubt it. But you never know.
The Sanguine Gryphon has lots of beautiful stuff. But this particular batt told me I was taking it home. No arguments.
The Gawain Batt
I bought a pound of nice roving from Steam Valley Fiber Farm, and eyed some of their dyed fibers and yarns. One of the yarns had little loops coming out from it, almost like a boucle. I tried to recreate it the other day and failed miserably. I’ll have to keep puzzling over that one.
Here’s the fiber. It’s really soft and “squishy” feeling. I almost wish I’d gotten more, then I could have dyed it all in one go and made a sweater out of it. Oh well. We’ll have fun together.
Wool Roving