I'm Dyeing

It is no exaggeration to say I've got pounds and pounds of undyed wool:

         1 1/2 pounds of corriedale locks from Tina's Ewephoria farm in Lawrence
          1 pound of corriedale roving from WCMercantile.com
          2 pounds of finn sheep wool from coppermoose.com
          2 pounds of brown sheep punta

I've got some silk too, but haven't cataloged that.  Soooooo, I'm thinking it's time to dye.  

I checked umpteen books out from the library, dug notes out from past workshops, and googled and googled and googled every dye topic I can think of and visited countless forums. I've purchased gallons of vinegar and I've weighed and measured the subject fiber.   I'd say I'm ready.

I moved a table to the garage from the cavern of crap my workshop and mixed dye stock solutions.

After watching Cadel Evans kill the Tour time trial, I spent ALL DAY Saturday making color wheels and samples of all the dyes I have on hand.  

The color wheel samples are a bit anemic, I suppose I didn't use a concentrated enough stock.  I remedied that when it came time to dye.


First I vat dyed the corriedale locks

On my monitor the colors are really washed out--in real life they are not--I used LOTS of dye. And, I thought I'd spend the rest of my life rinsing out the extra dye. 
 


Next I hand painted the 2 pounds of finn sheep roving.  2 pounds is a LOT of wool.  My color plan didn't work out like I envisioned. I wanted something unlike anything I already have.  That goal was accomplished but the roving turned out kinda yucky.  I hope to like it better tomorrow, or the next day -- 2 pounds of barf-dyed wool is a WHOLE LOT of wool.  Maybe it will spin up ok--we'll see.  It looks way worse in person than in the photo.

I got the hang of hand painting by the time I got to the corriedale roving and did a better job of choosing colors.  I really like how the sunshine colors turned out.   

These are packets of wool cooling and waiting to be washed.

 

I'd have liked to get some color on the rest of the naked wool, but the weekend has come to an end, as has the family's patience with scent of vinegar and wool.