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