Thursday, November 20, 2014

I'm dying.

Yes, that's right. Dying. Wool. That I spun myself. And I picked the Goldenrod and Sumac a few months ago to make dye "tea" to use. I don't know what it's called.

So I stayed home ALL day today. Didn't even go see my poor mother. She fell 2 weeks ago at her church and broke her right knee. And fell right on her face again too. It looks much better. But her knee can't be bent. She is walking on it though. So she can do a lot now that she couldn't do last week. My sister came up and stayed with her over a week. That's how I got to go to my spinning class. Thank you Heidi!

I found some directions for natural dying. Went to the studio and got it all together. It takes 2 hours to wash the skeins. Then another hour to set the mordant. Then another hour to keep the yarn in the dye pots.

This is the rinse water.



Then they went into the mordant pots. I used alum and cream of tartar.



Then into the dye water. This is the Sumac. it's really pretty when in the water here.




And this is the Goldenrod. So pretty.




And this is the finished yarn, hanging outside on the front porch to dry. Or drip really. Then I brought it inside the studio.

I wish now that I had done all the yarn in the yellow. I love it.



But don't know if I'll dye again. It took so long to do and it's just an iffy thing. So not to knit up a pretty scarf or cowl.

3 comments:

Sandra said...

Check out different methods, the one I use is a little less work.
You basically put the skeins directly to the mordant. No two hour washing.
and then the dye pot.
Hang and then rinse. Dry.

Iris said...

Kris, there are no pictures with this post on my computer. Don't know what's wrong.

Kristin said...

Beautiful colors!