Catskill Mountain Fibers

Archive for the ‘dye’ Category

There is a second Nor-easter moving into our area this morning. Unusual for snow threats to be issued in mid October. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised since we had such a cool, dreary summer. There had been reports that we’d have a mild winter here in the northeastern USA, but I doubt that so we’re preparing – having extra pellets delivered soon.

I’ve dyed up a pound of milk protein fiber in the Painted Desert color-way and will rinse and finish that up this morning. I also put wool into six Ball jars, added dyes and popped them all into the oven in a water bath to heat activate the dyes last evening. That all needs to be rinsed and then put on the rack in front of the pellet stove to dry. I hope to be able to start spinning some of it this evening.  I’ll be making items for raffles for a charity event that my aunt is helping to organize.  I’m thinking of some colorful cool hats for the event. . . maybe one hat in the colors of Poland’s flag.  I’ll post photos of the dyed fibers later today.

Just wanted to say that even though the package was damaged quite badly it was complete. I weighed the opened bag of locks and found they weighed 2.5 pounds. I had only ordered 2 – Bonus!

I haven’t opened the plastic bag containing the 20 pounds of wool yet. The bag has expanded to its limits though, and is HUGE!  If I were to open it all of the wool would pretty much pour out of the bag!  Lots of spinning & dyeing in the very near future.

The post office dropped off the HUGE box of wool this morning. Its stuffed so full I can’t get the bag out of the box. I’ll have DH do it when he gets up. There’s enough there to keep me busy for quite some time. I noticed some black in there – I need some for a hat pattern I”m working out, another happy plus. I also need to spin up more white, quite thin, so that I can work the skull pattern on the top of the hat.

My dyes and whatnot are scheduled for delivery tomorrow afternoon. I have two books coming with that order that are about natural dyeing. I have a bunch of reading to do before I dive into all of the naturals that will arrive. Plants, roots & bugs for dyeing. COOL!

The over-dye went extremely well yesterday. The fire red dye worked wonders. The turquoise gave me some very pretty roving that I’ll probably not part with. See, I have this thing for green … favorite color!

Weather is strange today. There’s a huge storm moving towards us out of Pennsylvania and it looks to be quite severe. Lights out with this one? I betcha! Planned an easy dinner because of impending storms. Burgers for hubby, and I’m going to make a Greek salad mix which I’ll make a wrap out of for me – he’ll just have the salad on the side.

Darkening significantly outside right now. Shit – we’re gonna get hit!  Time to shut down the electronics and wait it out.

Dyed some Falkland roving last week and I was terribly unhappy with the result. The colors came together badly and I ended up with this muddled/muddy looking stuff that was a dirty yellow with varying shades of purple/eggplant. I could visualize it spun up – FUGLY yarn!

Soaked the roving and got dye-pots ready earlier today. I used Jacquard fire red and turquoise (separate pots), some white vinegar and then immersed the soaked roving in each pot. The red came out beautifully, though still not rinsed. I expect to see hints of orange in that length. The other is still in the dye-pot – I didn’t use a lot of dye so I could try to achieve some green where the yellow was predominant. It’s due to come out in about 30 minutes.  I think I’ve made bad roving good again!

Now I sit here and can see some of the stuff that is mostly yellow with hits of other colors through each  length. DH had dubbed this batch as vomit like.  I did spin some up and it was just . . . OK.  Thinking of mixing up a bit more turquoise and giving it the plunge. Maybe one batch with more dye than the other. The turquoise should mix with the yellows, blues & reds in the roving well and I may have something nice. Guess what? Time to soak the dreaded vomit roving and get it into the pots a bit later this afternoon.  Okie dokie!