Hello, everyone. I couldn't find the cable that lets the camera talk to the computer-turns out it was on a shelf, right where it is supposed to be when it's not in use. Who'da thunk that?
A library friend of mine asked me to do a review for her blog, and I agreed. You can peek over there and say hello, if you want.
Today, we'll discuss my dyeing venture-I used McCormic blue food coloring, but didn't quite keep track of how many drops I put in-I do have a general recipe I tried to go by, though. (Inspiration from Knitty's Color To Dye For by Julie Theaker--I didn't completely follow her instructions) The wool is superwash from The Fold.
I first divided the 1lb roving into 5 1/3 skeins.For the first third, I let it soak for about 15 minutes in water and 1/3 cup of vinegar. I then transferred it to an aluminum pot, covered it almost completely in water, and put the heat on the stove at medium. I then mixed my dye.
Dye Recipe:
1) In a plastic cup, pour 2/3 cup of water
2) Put 8 drops of food coloring into the cup
3) Microwave for about 15 seconds, or until the temperature of the dye is around 120 degrees
I then poured the heated mixture over the heating roving, trying to be relatively even. I used around 4 of these mixtures, moving the roving around with the end of a cooking thermometer to make sure I didn't miss any parts.
However, I ended up with deep blue spots (below), which isn't necessarily bad, just not what I expected.
I let it "cook" for about an hour, then let it cool till it I could hold it.After squeezing out all of the water, rinsing the extra dye out, and hanging it up to dry for a night , I had a blue speckled roving!
The fiber had kinda matted together, so I predrafted it before I began to spin it.
For the second third, I let it soak like before, but without the vinegar, and just for 10 minutes or so. I also added 4 or 5 drops of food coloring to the water before I put the roving in the soak. I then let it cook for longer than an hour, and with only 2-3 helpings of the poured dye. The roving was so hot, I let it cool overnight, then squeezed out all of the water, rinsing the extra dye out, and hung it up to dry the next night. The result?
A 100% pale blue roving! The roving is more the color of the above photo than the below.
When it came to the matting factor, I had the same problem with the second roving as the first. There is an obvious difference between the dried just-out-of-the-dye roving (right part of your screen) and its predrafted counterpart (left).Well, I'm done rambling for now.
¡Buenas noches y hasta luego!
7 comments:
Love the dyeing! I have to say, even though it wasn't what you intended, I really like the blue speckled roving.
I love the pale blue, but I really liked the speckled blue too!
I like them both. Weird how different they came out, huh?
Ooooo! Very pretty! I love to dye fiber and yarn it is so much fun! The speckled roving will make some very cool and visually interesting yarn! That's how I got that blue yarn you saw on my blog a while back.
You have some very pretty blues there. I really like the second one, very soothing to look at.
Nice job! I also like speckles.
Re: your comment asking about the next UFOctober prize draw - I'll have you guys post your final progress tally after Oct 31, so it can be as complete as possible. So no rush yet. :)
Hi younger self-thank you SO MUCH for typing out the recipe we used for dyeing the roving. It's the day of the 4-H presentation, and without this, i'd be sunk.
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