let's talk fiber for a moment, shall we?
100_2147
Originally uploaded by kittenlogic. as you can see, my living room is a little bit covered in fiber. just a little.
i really like to spin a certain blend, and that blend is of merino, silk, and some mohair. i'm totally into it. infact, that blend is what pink elephant was composed of, if you remember that yarn. sometimes, though, i don't want a blendy, heathered sort of yarn if you know what i mean - i don't want to dye the colors separately and blend them together - i want them to be strong and bold and separate. that involves dyeing the batt.
i recall reading somewhere that dyeing batts is not the best idea because they probably felt more easily and lose a lot of their fabulous fluffiness, but i decided to go for it anyway. i folded each batt over onto itself, then over again, soaked them, and painted them as i do any roving. after a half hour of hoping they weren't going to turn into hot, stinky, colorful ropes, i took them out to see that the procedure had been a success!
they did lose a lot of fluff, but they're spinning up nicely and didn't felt at all. i was a LITTLE bit heavy-handed with the mohair, but i'll fix that next time i blend.
so in addition to this batt dyeing experiment, i finally tried applying my dyes to the wet fiber in the pot instead of painting it on saran wrap. it looked absolutely awful on the stove, but yielded stormy, which you see to the left of the batts. i'm rather uncomfortable using this method because i'm a complete control freak, but it's much faster than my usual style, so i'll be adventurous.
that's all. this upcoming week i have yarn to make, so i guess i'll post again when it's done. ♥