Rhubarb and Custard!

Hi, do you remember the hanks of wool yarn and Shetland tops I dyed at the end of last month, well I've spun up the 2% Red Lac (Rhine-M) and the 2% Marigold (Ambrosia) and here is the result.

I'm really delighted with the hank which is pun on my Jumbo flyer. I took staple lengths of each colour, alternating each colour as I spun. The staple lengths weren't accurately weighed as I wanted some overlap of the colours.

I'm going to knit it into a diagonal scarf, from a pattern I was shown in The Hague at Dineke's workshop last month, which I'm hoping will give me some subtle diagonal stripes. If I have any left I might just get out my Knitters Loom and weave a narrow scarf, too.

Sunday Dyeing!

I've just had a lovely day dyeing with a friend. We had pre-mordanted 2 kilo's of Blue Faced Leicester Chunky yarn the previous week and spend the whole of Sunday dyeing it!

I set to work starting an indigo hydrosulphine vat ready to dip some pre-dyed hanks.

My friend, Lorraine, got the dyeing started by half filling a stainless steel meat tin with one of my Pure Tinctoria dyes and put in 5 100g pre-mordanted and wetted "centre-pull" balls. This gives a nice effect because it only dyes the part of the ball in the dye and that is shaded as the dye penetrates towards the centre of the ball. She simmered the balls in the dye for 40 to 45 minutes, then washed and rinsed them.

Lorraine dyed 2 kilo's of Blue Face Leicester Chunky yarn in this way. As each batch was wash, rinsed and re-hanked, I folded them in half and dipped the ends in the indigo vat.


Here are the Red Lac and indigo dipped hanks hanging from my Sumach tree.
This batch of yarn is dyed with Myrobalan and then dipped in the indigo vat.

A bit of a dark picture, but this is 1 kilo of Purple Lac which had its hank ends dipped in the indio vat!

We had a great day and managed to dye 2 Kilo's of yarn, dip 3 kilo's of yarn and mordant 400g of yarn, have lunch and a good natter!

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!