Gomez

Last year I purchased Gomez at a metal work shop in Rohoboth Beach. My husband primed him for me yesterday.

Today I decided to paint him.

A face only a mother could love!

Welcome Gomez!

Nancy

Natural Dyeing at The Spinnery

Today I had another dye class, natural dyeing. Betty picked Goldenrod and Jewelweed for the class to use. We also used some dried Madder Root.  First our sampls were mordant with alum (white), copper (green) and iron (brown).

She had the Madder Root soaking in the bath when we got there. We stripped the Goldenrod flowers and put them in a bath. Brought it up to a simmer. And we stripped the flowers and leaves of the Jewelweed and put in a bath to simmer.

Jewelweed

Goldenrod flowers drained from the bath.

All the colors we got!

Enjoy!

Nancy

8/16/15 Solar Dyeing

The teal green dye from Saturday did not completely exhaust. So I add a little more dye..

Merino & Grey Alpaca

Purple on Merion & Salt/Pepper Alpaca. It didn't get as dark as I wanted and the purple "broke" a little. Happy with the results.

Lastly a bit of an experiment. I had a little Flamingo Pink, Brilliant Yellow, and Blazing Orange left. So I applied it in the bucket by pouring stripes of dye. I reused the dye bath water from the previous day. Apparently this was the Chartruese bucket and not all the dye exhausted. The Aplaca has spots of Chartruese. Love the results!

Merinno & Grey Alpaca

I do apologize for the picture quality. They are still on the drying rack and I have an injured wrist. I makes taking pics difficult. 

Enjoy!

Nancy

8/15/15 Dyeing Results

Yellow and Chartruese on Merino

Teal Green on Merino and Salt & Pepper Alpaca

Variegated dyeing - Yellow, Salmon, Blazing Orange, Royal Purple - I did all four together and the same, but got very different results! They are mill ends from Kraemer's Yarn, fiber unknown. My guess is there difference is due to different fibers. They need reskeining, but are still damp.

I still have three buckets I'm solar dyeing. Two have a small amount of dye that needs to be exhausted and one was lighter than I wanted, so I added more dye. One more day in the blazing sun and they will be done!

Color my world!! :)

Nancy

Fiber Dyeing 8/15/15

After my class at The Spinnery, I started thinking about color.  Last night I chose the fibers I dyed in my acid dyeing in the grill - Carribean Blue, Chartruese, and Flamingo Pink. I rotated the fiber on my hand carders and blended them to see what I would get. And here it is!

Can't wait to spin it! (Hurt my wrist carrying groceries today so I am unable to spin, knit or crochet. Actually everything is difficult right now.)

I then set up for today's dyeing. 

Today I dyed 3 oz salt/pepper alpaca and 1 oz white merino to dye teal.

And 4 oz merino to dye Brilliant Yellow.

4 oz merino to dye Chartruese. 

I practiced the technique I learned yesterday.  Took mill ends from Kraemer's Yarn (fiber content unknown). I layered Brilliant Yellow, Salmon, Blazing Orange and Royal Purple.

Cooked for an hour at 350. Cooled, washed, and conditioned. Two came out in what I would describe as blended fall colors (a happy accident) and two came more brilliant with separations of colors (what I was aiming for). Pics to follow when dried and reskeined. Very pleased with the results. Tomorrow I will post pics of the fiber when washed.

Tomorrow...more dyeing, make sauce, more canning....busy, busy, busy. I have been roasting tomatoes, canning sauce and freezing zucchini, eggplant and peppers for weeks already. It seemed like the veggies are coming in a month earlier this year! Makes it tough to keep up with the fiber arts!

Enjoy! Happy, happy, happy

Nancy

Variegated Dyeing at The Spinnery

Today was so much fun! I love playing with fibers and dye! We were given yarn that was pre prepped. It was soaked over night in water, 2 tbs of white vinegar and 1 tsp of dish soap. We were then presented with the three colors - the main color, tha accent, and the color pop. We filled a syringe (60 ML) with the main color (mine was mulberry). It was applied in swirls and we squeezed the dye in. We applied most of the fiber with this color leaving white areas for the next color. The second color (mine was purple) was strategicall placed in the white areas, gentle pinch once. Again leaving alittle white. Then we applied the color pop (mine was gold) in the remaining white area and in light areas. Just a drop and pinch.

The other woman in the class had sky blue, Aqua green and lilac

Betty also did some yarn. She only used purple and chartreuse.

Then we were able to dye some yarn to take home. It is cascade sport 100% wool.

I used mulberry, coral, gold, and emerald green.

My fellow student was inspired by Van Gogh's Irises

Mine is cooking in the oven. I put and old roasting rack I don't use (need a cookie rack) to keep the yarn from sitting in the water. Pour water in bottom of the pan, cover with foil, cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Have fun!

Nancy

Acid Dyeing Roving Take Two

Followed the same procedure as yesterday. I put a bit more fiber in each jar. I have one jar of tan/fawn alpaca, two jars of white alpaca, and four jars of the Corrie blend wool.

The sapphire blue still had white areas even though I stirred more often. I had to add another Tbsp or so more of the dye to the jar. I think the color will be through the roving now. I should have added the extra dye earlier for more even color.  The red and yellow have white areas and could have used more dye and better mixing.

Fire Engine Red, Caribean Blue, Sapphire Blue

Chartreuse, Brilliant Yellow, Flamingo Pink (on tan alpaca), Teal Green

7/11/15 & 7/12/15 dyeing.

Enjoy!

Nancy

Second Pair of Leg Warmers Finished

I love the first pair so much I made a second pair! Again I used Noro Kureyon and the some pattern as before. I love knitting them and love this yarn for the Leg warmers!

:)

Nancy

Acid Dyeing Roving....On the Grill!

This is a technique I read about on Dharma Trading Company's website. Except for a minor deviation, I followed their instructions. And yes, I did it on the grill! Too hot to do it in the house and I feel better using these dyes outside.

First, I chose three fibers 

Left to right - Ashland Bay Corrie Blend Wool (Paradise Fibers), white alpaca (Bucks County Herd), and light tan/fawn alpaca (Hunterdon County Sheep & Wool).

I filled three quart jars with corrie blend, three jars with white alpaca, and one jar with tan alpaca. I disolved 1/2 Tbs of citric acid in a cup of water per jar. Then fill jar with water. Let sit minimum of 2 hours.

Put 1/2 tsp of Dharma's Acid Dye in a container, added 1 cup of hot water, mixed well.

In fiber jar, 4 Tbsp of mixed dye, stir well with skewer.

From bottom center clockwise:

407 Caribean Blue

408 Teal Green

403 Flamingo Pink (tan alpaca)

401 Brilliant Yellow

404 Sapphire Blue

402 Fire Engine Red

In the center:

448 Chartreuse

Fill the pot 1/4'way with water, set on grill with low/medium heat. Put jars in. Made sure the water level was at least 1/2 way up the jar but not higher than 3/4.  Adjusted the heat to make sure it got hot but didn't bubble. First 20 minutes stirred gently every 5 minutes.  Added 1/2 Tbsp of citric acid and stirred well. Another 20 minutes stirred three times.

Let cool for a couple of hours.

Washed in cold water, dish detergent and salt. Soak 10-15 minutes then rinse.

Teal, Caribean blue, fire engine red, sapphire blue

Should have stirred the sapphire blue and fire engine red jars more.  I have white areas.

Top - chartreuse, brilliant yellow, flamingo pink (tan alpaca).

Now they dry...

This was fun! 

Nancy

Brushed Mohair Shawl

This shawl is made from hand spun and hand dyed brushed mohair I purchased from The Spinnery in Frenchtown, NJ. The Butterfly Shawl Pattern came with the yarn.

Enjoy! 

Nancy