An adventure in the dye world has been something I never expected to be so much fun. My thoughts were..oh a lot of work, but it was not and it gave me the feeling like of painting a masterpiece. In the next few months I will share some of my dye fun with you. I use Gaywool Dye because they are easy to use and the colors are intense. Mixing the colors will be my next step so I can create custom colors.
The mistakes I made was not to document my work. I just wanted to play so that is what I did. Next dye day will begin with my dye ledger.
Gaywool Dyes are formulated specifically for raw or spun woo. The formulation includes the mordant and dye bath acidifier together so anyone can dye without adding subtracting or worrying about what to mix together. You just open the safe cap and add to the water. The directions say for every 4 oz of wool you add 1 level cap full of dyestuff. Now that is easy!
The first attempt to dye a hand pun skein I had the skeins tied together to tightly and that created a line on each side of the skein which did not dye. The hand spun skein I dyed turned out great because it looked like it was part of the design. That skein sold right away so I do not have it to scan this morning. This ball of blues is a skein I purchase of Optimum 100% wool. The original color was a very light blue and I never really was excited about it. I love it now.
The real reason I wanted to learn to dye was for my mohair loks. I love the encasement technique I learned at Kate and Will Taylors home. They hosted a Judith MacKenzie spinning class and we not only spun but we dyed as well. Kate also got out a bag of silk worm lava and we saw the process of boiling them and extruding the silk. When I began the spinning process I never thought that it would lead me into so many fun projects! I love Spinning! http://rowenaart.net/store/login.php