Enough blue?
Yesterday afternoon Mom and I played with dyes.
I dyed 118g of wool/silk (15% silk) sliver for a fibre swap, and 68g of kid mohair to keep for myself. I'm really happy with how they turned out!
Wanna see?
I tried kettle dyeing for the first time. Kettle dyeing is when you pop the wool in a big pot full of hot water and dye, and let it sit for a while. You often get lighter and darker bits depending on which parts of the wool float to the top and whether you stir it. I intentionally let it sit still to get a variegated tone. Also, I poured some of a second, darker colour into the pot in a few different places to make it even more variegated.
The sliver, in its untidy heap. If you were wondering what wool/silk sliver is, this is it. It's fibre that's been processed so it's in one long stream, with each individual wool or silk fibre lying more or less parallel to the rest. This makes it really easy to spin, and easy to get a neat, even yarn. I braided the sliver once it was all dried in order to make it tidy and pretty.
See the shiny threads in it? That's the silk peeking out. All the shiny stuff is silk, all the fluffy stuff is merino. Close-up time!
Beautiful, fluffy merino.
But enough sheepiness, let's see the goat!
Kid mohair. This one's for me. I've done a little mohair before, but it wasn't nearly as good quality as this one. Can't wait to cloud it and see it all fluffed-up and ready to be spun! It may look small now, but that's because all the fibres are in little dense curls. When I cloud it I'll separate all those curls and all the fibres and I'll get at least a couple buckets' worth of shiny airy blueness.
The mohair deserves a close-up too. Look at the lovely shiny locks!
I think I need to play with dyeing more often.
I dyed 118g of wool/silk (15% silk) sliver for a fibre swap, and 68g of kid mohair to keep for myself. I'm really happy with how they turned out!
Wanna see?
I tried kettle dyeing for the first time. Kettle dyeing is when you pop the wool in a big pot full of hot water and dye, and let it sit for a while. You often get lighter and darker bits depending on which parts of the wool float to the top and whether you stir it. I intentionally let it sit still to get a variegated tone. Also, I poured some of a second, darker colour into the pot in a few different places to make it even more variegated.
The sliver, in its untidy heap. If you were wondering what wool/silk sliver is, this is it. It's fibre that's been processed so it's in one long stream, with each individual wool or silk fibre lying more or less parallel to the rest. This makes it really easy to spin, and easy to get a neat, even yarn. I braided the sliver once it was all dried in order to make it tidy and pretty.
See the shiny threads in it? That's the silk peeking out. All the shiny stuff is silk, all the fluffy stuff is merino. Close-up time!
Beautiful, fluffy merino.
But enough sheepiness, let's see the goat!
Kid mohair. This one's for me. I've done a little mohair before, but it wasn't nearly as good quality as this one. Can't wait to cloud it and see it all fluffed-up and ready to be spun! It may look small now, but that's because all the fibres are in little dense curls. When I cloud it I'll separate all those curls and all the fibres and I'll get at least a couple buckets' worth of shiny airy blueness.
The mohair deserves a close-up too. Look at the lovely shiny locks!
I think I need to play with dyeing more often.