Dyeing the blues

My latest dyeing...fleece includes Teeswater, Cormo Cross, corriedale

 

 

Forest Fire dyed locks and yarn

I dyed this forest fire themed locks the other day

 

Yarn

 

 

 

BFL dyed locks and fleece

All dyed in one pot.. bottom left is Cormo Cross, bottom right Wensleydale, top is BFL. I used the Redding Method to dye these.   This is not the best photo since I could get the light correct.. but the BFL took the dye really well.   The Cormo was ok but not as vibrant.  This is what I would expect...in the dyepot it was a real dye hog.    The Wensleydale was ok.. this fleece I bought washed and it is every so slightly felted and I am thinking it is not a good dye candidate.  It is a pretty white fleece anyway so I guess that is ok. 

Dyed Fleece

Here is more fleece dyed in a single dye pot

 

 

 

Dyeing fleece

Lately I have been trying to learn the Redding method for dyeing fleece. Each photo shows fleece dyed at the same time in a single pot.

Cormo and Coopworth

Coopworth

 

Coopworth and Wensleydale

Coopworth and Wensleydale

 

Great way to dye fleece or locks

In the latest issue of PLY Magazine is a wonderful article written by Natalie Redding. She shares her secret to dyeing amazing fleece. This article is worth the subscription price of PLY. Namaste Farms, Natalie's farm and business, has the most amazing dyed locks...period! Never have I gotten a crunchy lock in my Scrapboxes - boxes of dyed locks. Try this technique with raw fleece and you will get Amazing results!

Without giving away the article...here are some photos:

Before dyeing...Teeswater and Cormo/Cvm cross

Fiber after dyeing:

I wanted a more defined red

 

 

Dyeing yarn

I have started trying to dye yarn. This color is called purple soldier fly. I dyed it on alpaca, silk and wool commercial yarn.

Here it is on Gray handspun Romney

 

 

Dyeing yarn and Fiber

I am getting into dyeing yarn and Fiber. I find that it is much easier to dye yarn... as felting is less of a worry. I also notice that how and when I add the acid to my process changes things dramatically.

Both of these used about 8 ounces of fiber, citric acid, and Dharma acid dyes, and water of course.

This was simple kettle dyeing... the citric acid was added after the fiber was in the pot. It used less citric acid.

Here I soaked the fiber in a water and citric acid mixture... then I added it to a pot with water and brought it up to heat and the dye adhered very quickly. The two dyes hardly mingled in the pot at all.

 

Beast yarn

For a challenge in a group that I am in I needed to spin a yarn that I had never spun before

Here is my yak yarn - I used a down as the fiber not top

 

Also we had been assigned a beast as our character- our beast was The Minotaur.. I used Icelandic locks as my base for my beast yarn