Friday, April 9, 2010

Trying My Hands With Dyeing The Fleece










I had bought some dyes at The Mannings a few months ago,but just decided to try it this past week.I have been so busy cleaning up the yard,playing in the greenhouse ,but this has been on my mind since Debra asked to see what`s going on with the fleece,so dyeing it was next on the list.What I have done will be spun into singles.I am going to be doing some wool applique.I bought the book Wool Crazy,by JoAnn Mullaly & also Sue Spargo`s folk art dreams cd & I got to thinking that if I spun this dyed blend thin enough I could use it in my wool applique projects.{Always so much I want to do,you should see the inside of my house,I may have to hire a housekeeper,hah,hah,}
So,this is for you,Debra.The first step was washing my mohair.I had bought some grey sheep`s wool from Tammy over at Fairlight Farms & washed & carded that already as I want to mix a little{ about 5 %}into my mohair to drumcard together,the wool will help hold the mohair together.You can just use plain mohair from the angora goats,but everyone says to mix,so mix I do.Here is the clean mohair I`m carding with the wool into batts.
I bought Gaywool Dyes colors Logwood & Lily.I don`t know why I bought the logwood dye now,I knew it was brown,but why,I just don`t know.Anyhow,I used an old enamalware pot & cooked my batts on the stove with boiling water ,trying to tye dye some with the lily & logwood,then just used the logwood,& the lily is the pretty blueish teal,I love it.The tiedye looks a little purplish in some places.
I took it all outside & spread it on an old window screen to dry.
Today I drumcarded it again,mixing colors together & just fooling around with blending the colors.Tomorrow or later tonite I will spin it.So,here are the pics with my first "major" dyeing.Doing everything all myself takes so much time.I tried to place the steps in line with the pictures,hope you get the gist of it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow...I admire what you are learning in spinning and dying and carding! I've always thought it would be interesting, but lots of work. It seems to be well planned out by you. In the 60's the large floor spinning wheels were popular and I always thought I'd like one. But I really need someone to go step by step with me in a new adventure so never knew anyone to teach me. Keep up the learning and the fun!

tiptoethruphylsgarden.blogspot.com said...

Thanks Cathy,I learned most all of it from reading books & subscribing to spin-off mag.I took a class in drop spindling,but my hands wouldn`t twril the spindle fast enough.I love to spin,it is so relaxing.It is never too late to learn something new.phylliso