Fyberspates

I love my new camera.

At last, I can take decent photo', I snapped a couple really quickly this morning just before leaving for work, of the dyeing I did at the weekend, they are not very artistic, but they give you an idea. Most of the yarn is going on ebay.

This is yarn and fibres drying out and needing to be blended, close ups are next.

So here is some yummy sock yarn I dyed:

And here is some lovely soft aran weight yarn in the same colourway:

here is some silk boucle in the same colourway  I really love this stuff, is so shiny.

Can you see a theme occuring?? When i get a colouray I like I try it on all sorts of fibres to see what they look like!!

Up next is some Kid mohair in the same colourway:

Finally are a couple of pictures of other bits and bobs I have been dying:

My yellow and pink sock yarn:

And some pink kid mohair:

Crockpot fibre

So the fibre from the crockpot was dry enough for me to photograph it and card it up.

Here is some of the darker wool and to the left is silk in the same dylot.

The colours in this picture are quite true to the real thing. I have carded together some silk and wool from this dyelot, but which is lighter. I am spinning it very very fine and will the ply it together. I think this is the best stuff I have dyed so far. For some reason the crockpot seems to intensify the colours.

Sanity rules again.

Ahem! Had a lovely weekend, just walking through the most beautiful welsh country side and walking on the beach. Actually on sat we went for a 5 hour walk! It made up for not going running this weekend. We stayed in a beautiful B&B called the Tallismand, very close to the beach, they also have a pottery business there, and all the crockery is hand made, needless to say we came home with a teapot, some mugs, a milk jug, and something else which I can't disclose because it is a Christmas present.

We got home about 2.30, and I was in the mood for some dyeing. So I got out my pot's and pans and spread news paper every where here is some of the results so far:

This is some of the raw wendsleydale fleece dyed, I did scour it a little first. I have no idea what to do with this.

Secondly this is about 75 grams of silk. I am dying to card this.

This about 400grams of wendsleydale (red pink and green) and some super wash merino (orange) I intend to make a self striping yarn from these.

And finally: Dyed and carded soya silk; again I have no idea what to do with this yet.

A success!

I decided to go to Sainsbury's to get some yummy food for the weekend, and whilst I was there I discovered food bags which you can put in the oven!! I was so excited I came home and started to dye straight away! So here is a little journey with pictures of dyeing in the oven!
OK, so I soaked some wool, silk and some soya silk.
Then I layed out the soaked fibres (excess water was squeezed out) on some cling film ready to paint.
Then mixed up some dyes, (I use Gaywool Dyes because you don't have to do any messing about with using acids etc.
Then I painted them on in stripes and brushed the colours so they mixed quite a lot; I mainly used orange and pinks. Here is a picture of the silk painted rovings:

Then I popped them into the oven bags, sealed them with a tie, and put them in at 190 degree's C.
I left them in for about 30 minutes and then took them out let them cool, swilled them out and here is a pictures of the soya silk:

And finally here is a picture of the finished rovings hanging drying in my garden, The left is the soya silk, the middle is the wool (wendsleydale) and the right is the silk.
I am going to spin these up tomorrow!!! Yeah!!

Finally A dyeing Success!

Well, I still have a headache, however, I disovered Spinning it actually quite soothing. On friday I was reading Knitting notes and she posted about dyeing some rovings, and linked to The Dye pot which has some great instructions for Crockpot dyeing. Creating my own yarn has to be nearly the most exciting thing on the planet, so I read the instructions, and because it is dyeing, I remebered them to the last 't', (I wish this would happen when I read psychology literature, but it's not exciting enough!!)
So I found a crappy old stew pot and soaked my rovings and poured my dyes on and popped them on the cooker, and left them to it. I cleaned the house, and when I had finished and the rovings had cooled, I got them out and they are absolutely beautiful. However the problem I normally have is the fact that although the colours are great, the rovings have felted so much you can't even tease them apart to spin them.
So all night I was tossing and turning whilst the rovings were drying just incase they might be ruined. Thankfully they were fine!
Sunday morning I started spinning them. The colours at the bottom of the pot are really really dark, and get lighter towards the top, and apart from the very bottom one the Rainbow dyeing has worked a treat.
I will post a picture of the rovings and the yarn I have spun when I get home this evening, because I was late for work so I couldn't take any pictures.
Its definately not the colours I would normally use, they are interestingly dramaticaly better than anything I have ever done before.
Only 6 hours before I can go home and spin some more!! Pic's soon!!