Color Experiments
Last Friday I all of a sudden got in the mood for dyeing. The market near our apartment was tragically low on the Kool-Aid flavors/colors I wanted (blues and greens) so I just got Grape (purple), Black Cherry (a nice red, red) and Tamarindo (I feared it would be yellow, but turned out to be a nice gold). Enter 4 ounces of merino. Pewter merino, to be exact. I thought of spinning it as is, but it was grey and boring. Overdyeing would bring in subtle excitement, right?
From left to right, the methodology of someone slightly anal:
1) Single color. Purple in various dilutions, randomly ladled over the fiber with a teaspoon. Nuked one dilution, ladled another, then nuked again. I like the subtle layers of color.
2) Two-color. Purple and barely-there spatterings of red. The red turned out too light--hey, pink!!! I need some more of that.
3) Two-color. Red and gold, laid out in a glass loaf pan and dye poured in along the long side. Interesting how the colors divide themselves so neatly in the braid.
4) Three-color. Purple, red and gold, laid out in said pan and colors poured over in three equally divided parts.
I do not like the smell of grapejuice or grape-flavored drinks, unless it's been crushed, bottled, and aged, then decanted and poured into a glass. But it makes a pretty color, doesn't it? ;-)
Okay, so I have this feeling that because I only dunked them in water a half-hour before dyeing that the dye didn't get through to the inner layers of fiber. Maybe that's good, maybe the colors won't dominate so much (I'm going for beautifully subtle colors. At least, I'm trying to.) They're slightly felted because I poured the fiber into a bowl of warm water instead of letting it rest in the pan to cool. I know it's salvageable, just more pre-drafting and spreading the fibers out. Maybe I'll go over it with my Mason Pearson brush (he he). Kerstin, can I borrow Liv?
Claudia pointed me to Two Sheep June's blog when I asked her about consistency in spinning. Thanks, Claudia. Of course, I went through June's archives (sooo consistent!) and found this amazing wheel. Isn't it beautiful?
Cute Overload ;) makes me want to scream, there's so much sweetness. Since I found the site, I've been going back daily. Those huge, huge eyes!
beautiful beautiful! you've caught the dyeing bug, and so have i!! no dyeing yet, sigh, but sometime this month for sure. i want to try natural dyes very badly. anyhow, your colors are gorgeous. go you!
Prettttty - I know it is harder than it looks to have something so beautiful result when you are mixing colors.
I got a kick about what you said about only liking grape flavored things after, ummm, processing!
those colors are beautiful! like how the red and gold ended up that way :) i love to dye with kool aid, so much fun!
Dyeing is fun, isn't it? I have the same problem that it doesn't penetrate all the way through. I was reading somewhere that it helps to gently spread the fibers apart before applying the dye. That way the strips of roving are flat instead of roundish. I plan to try this next time.
Oooh, your dying looks great. I particularly love the purples as I do so love me some purple :)
Puuuurrty! Yup, there's no turning back. :)
Thanks for the link! I haven't addressed spinning to a standard in my 'blog, but if you have specific questions, I'd be glad to try and help you out.
they look absolutely beautiful colours! how amazing to know you could be knitting something that you have done really from scratch yourself. except grow the wool :) fab!
Pretty! I want to try!
"Amen" about Sticky Grape Flavor Smell.
Great colors! I love how your dying experiment turned out. Now we just have to see what they look like spun up...
The smell is a bit overwhelming at first, isn't it? With enough rinsing it should go away. I like the all over purple one the best, but all of them look great!