The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Food & crafts => Crafts => Topic started by: Bionic on July 20, 2012, 10:58:21 am

Title: This weeks labours
Post by: Bionic on July 20, 2012, 10:58:21 am

I tried my hand at dyeing for the first time this week and I must say I am very pleased with the results. .
I had undyed skeins of wool that I bought at Wonderwool Wales, mordanted them with alum and then dyed with madder powder.
I used a bath of 20grams of madder with a skein of 100 grams at a timeand, left each one to cool down overnight before rinsing and then added another skein but no additional madder. 
The pics show the madder bath with the first skein in and then the 3 dried and finished skeins. From left to right they show in order of putting them in the bath.  I was very surprised at the colour of the 3rd skein as I thought it would be much paler.  I think there might still be enough dye in the bath for yet another skein.
 

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Rosemary on July 20, 2012, 12:11:16 pm

Beautiful - love the one on the left especially.

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Fleecewife on July 20, 2012, 12:44:59 pm

It's such fun, isn't it  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:   How do you think you will use the yarn?
 
Nice wall  ;D

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Bionic on July 20, 2012, 12:56:39 pm

In this months Simply Knitting magazine there is a pattern for a mans tank top that has different colours in it.  I am thinking of making that but for me not OH.
Sally

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: SallyintNorth on July 20, 2012, 01:51:17 pm

They look great, Sally  :thumbsup: and you make it sound very straightforward.

I know that I will succumb to having a go at dyeing and at weaving eventually - but have enough on my plate for the moment with spinning, carding, fleece preparation, spinning wheel maintenance... :D

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Bionic on July 20, 2012, 04:09:40 pm

Sally,
If you are preparing fleece, carding and spinning its inevitable that you will be dyeing at some stage. It sort of finishes the whole process. I am getting a great deal of satisfaction from it and I expect that will increase when I start dyeing the wool that I have spun myself.
Its also lovely to see how the colours turn out.  I'm doing logwood next.
 
Sally

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Dans on July 21, 2012, 12:24:04 pm

Oh wow. They look wonderful. :thumbsup:

 I am so so so tempted by this! I even have some dyes...

Dans

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Bionic on July 21, 2012, 01:36:31 pm

Dans,
Go for it.  I have logwood extract on the stove at the moment and the wool is begining to look amazing.
I will post pics some time next week after another couple of baths.
Sally

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Dans on July 21, 2012, 01:57:34 pm

Any good guides? I suppose I do have my first home spun plyed now...  :innocent:

Looking forward to the pics  :fc:

Dans

Title: Re: This weeks labours
Post by: Bionic on July 21, 2012, 02:06:40 pm

Dans,
I have a book called the Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing by Eva Lambert & Tracy Kendall. The book is good and has some lovely coloured pics but not everything I want to know is in there.
I bought my coloured extracts from this place http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/ (http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/) and have got quite a bit of information direct from their website. They have a book too which I have ordered but I think its out of stock at Amazon although they haven't come back and said so yet.
There are also quite a lot of uTube videos and mostly they have shown me not to be too hung up on specifics as they seem to put lots more wool in the dye bath than is recommended etc.
It seems the way to go is to follow a set recipe for the first couple of times (thats where I am at) and them experiment.
Have fun
Sally