Indigo Fermentation Vat

I have been busy organising my work room over the last week, so haven't had much time to do any real "work" such as weaving, spinning or dyeing. But I need to make an indigo fermentation vat so that I can dye some yarn next week. I have to start now, as it takes about 48 hours to work, so that it will be ready for Monday.

It's the ammonia/yeast vat that I am going to make and this is how I am going to do it:

• add 5 tablespoon of powdered Yeast and 5 rounded tablespoons of Sugar to 5 cups (200ml) warm water and leave for 2 hours.
• at the same time dissolve 5 level teaspoons of Indigo to 2 and 1/2 cups (500mls) Ammonia.
• After the 2 hours add the indigo and ammonia to the yeast-sugar mix in a large container and fill to about the 2 1/2 gallon mark. Cover with plastic wrap and use a rubber band to seal. (The fermentation can burst a rigid seal.)
• Leave to sit for several days in a warm place.
  

Sock Yarn

I have finally spun the wenslydale fibres that I dyed in the Monday Class a few weeks ago. I am very pleased with the result, so I am going to give the hank to my friend Rhiannon.

She has been helping me pack my dyes, so the hank is a reward for her hard work. When she makes the socks I will post the picture for you to see. In the mean time I am going to knit (or weave) a scarf in the hank I dyed at the same time, so it will match!

Pure Tinctoria Workshop

I had a great time on Saturday at my local guild of weavers, spinners and dyers, in Derbyshire. I ran a natural dye extracts workshop with my Pure Tinctoria Dyes. Each participant dyed three small hanks with one of the dyes, then modified them with iron water, copper water, citric acid and washing soda. They all went home with 70 colour swatches!

See them on the right.

The only colour we didn't have was blue. I use a fermentation vat for indigo, which takes about 48 hours to work and it doesn't travel too well. As you can see the range of colours is fantastic, I just have to add the indigo range to the swatches, so watch this space for the results!

Monday Class Part 2

I hope you enjoyed looking at the work of my Monday evening students, here is the next instalment!

Here is the space dyed yarn that Hazel produced.

On the right are the lovely reds and purples of Ann Broome's dyed tops.

On the left Lesley's second batch of fleece bubbling away.


These images just give you a flavour of the work that has been produced over the last two Mondays. I will post more images when the students have produced something from their skeins.

More soon.

Monday Class

The Monday spinning, weaving and dyeing class have been following the design workshop I developed for the Online Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. I encouraged them to use the ideas to develop a range of colour to use in an acid space dyeing workshop. I am so pleased with the work that I wanted to share it with you all.

This is an image from last weeks class.

Bottom fibres are Wenslydale and the hank above were both dyed in a similar bath by me!

The hank above were fibres dyed by Lesley, spun and plied with itself.

The little centre pull ball in orange was spun with beads, also by Lesley.





The bottom two hanks on the right were fibres dyed by Hazel. The bottom one was spun and plied with itself and the one above, spun and plied with a white singles.
The fibres at the top left were dyed by Anne Warwick.








The image on the left is Anne Warwicks design, colour study, dye record book, fibres and yarns.


I will post more of the results later, please call back to see them!