Photographic images posted to 
Designer scarves and shawls added to 
Lovely buck from summer litters that carries chocolate gene for sale.
Dyeing, Dyeing, Dyeing!
Spinning a hand carded blend of my fawn angora, moorit wool and tussah silk on my Reeves Wheel
Posted in Creating
|
Walnut Hull Dye Pot I finished plying the Coopworth skeins in the early afternoon, since the cold air moving in prevented much in the way of bunny chores. Earlier in the day I had removed the walnut hulls from the dye pot and strained the liquid through an old pillowcase tucked inside a colander I used for dyeing. Not much residue, as far as I could tell, since I had put the walnut hulls inside another old pillowcase for their three day soak and cooking time. As I said, I didn't use a mordant, just to see how this would turn out. I also have a project in mind and the probable color was what I want for it. So I wet the skeins thoroughly, with a little dish detergent in case there was any grease in the wool, and then put them in the dye pot, which I had warming on the stove. Looks a little yucky, doesn't it?
Just Out of the Pot I let the pot simmer for four hours, not letting it get any hotter than steaming. The directions said "warm", which I took to mean that it shouldn't boil. When I heated the hulls I let it boil for a couple of hours. Not so with the yarn. After it cooked for the four hours, I let the skeins sit in the solution overnight. This is what they looked like, right out of the pot, before rinsing.
Coopworth Skeins, Natural Dyed with Walnut Hulls And this is the finished product. It took several rinses for the water to run clear so that I could hang up the skeins. The skeins are a little darker than they appear in this picture at the moment, but they will lighten a bit more as they dry. The color is very nice, sort of a light caramel or camel. They turned out nicely uniform and I think they will make a nice knitted scarf. A few notes on natural dyeing: This is a messy business. If you have a nice kitchen (I don't) you might consider moving the process outside. The cooking hulls smell a bit; I didn't think it was unpleasant but some people might. I hauled the heavy pot outside to dump hulls and excess dye bath, because splashes might tend to become a permanent part of my counter color. I do a lot of dyeing with acid dyes; the finished walnut skeins required a lot more rinsing than with acid dyes so that I could hang them up (I don't want a brown bathtub!) Since I didn't use a mordant, I didn't mind using my kitchen, but some dyes and mordants aren't safe around food and, even with the safer dyes I normally use, I have pots and equipment that are just used for dyeing.
Colorful singles from a painted silk cap After all this spinning of natural colored white wool, the urge for color hit me last night. So I started pulling apart a lovely silk bell I bought last fall at SAFF (no vendor name on the receipt so I don't know who I got it from). I love working with silk and the colors of this cap are beautiful. |
Comments
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by
|
|
|
|
|