Kategorie: Färben

sendung mit der maus – i loved to watch this show as a kid. they explain you how things are done… today it’s all about (opal) self-striping yarn… from sheep to socks 😉
have a look!

bunte wolle

so far i just threw some colours on my fibers and skeins of yarn, but all that’s about to change 🙂

i found this great book on amazon, or to be more exact i read on a blog somewhere that it is highly recommendable. so i gave it a go and at the first glance i knew: great book! exactly what i need.

gabriele breuer – 1000 Farben auf Wolle und Seide (1000 colours on wool and silk). the book is in german unfortunately, but i highly recommend it to all the german dyers!

it tells you everything about dyeing with acid dyes and fixation in the microwave (plus infos about other techniques) which i haven’t done yet, but always wanted to try. it’s so much easier, faster and less of an energy waste than boiling the fibers.

the book even starts off with explanations about chemical backgrounds, colour theory… the best thing is that the author also works with ashford dyes like me. so if i do exactly as she tells, i’m quite sure to have similar results! in the end you’ll be able to mix any possible colour just using the 3 base colours (in ashford terms that’s blue, yellow and hot pink in comparison to the general base colours cyan, yellow and magenta) and black.

the book also tells you how to apply the colours, how to achieve specific effects etc….

i definitely have a huge shopping list now. i need 1l glas containers now to prepare and store my basic colour-mixes, a large flat bowl (can’t find the correct word) to spread my rovings in for dyeing, some extra spoons etc, and a big pot (does anybody have an old one they don’t need anymore?!?)… so far i dyed using our normal cooking equipment but i don’t feel too good about dying and eating from the same pots…

so my todo list is:

• read book
• buy equipment
• start dying like a madwoman 😛

i dyed again yesterday. nothing ever turns out the way i plan it, but i like it anyway 😉

superwash merino fiber:

sock yarn:

i admit it. i’m addicted to dyeing yarn. i coloured some more skeins with ashford acid dyes! would like to spin aaaall of my fibre myself but try to be reasonable 😉 and plan to sell them on my dawanda page. so if you like them, go ahead! 🙂

merino superwash, 93g:

merino superwash, 92g:

bluefaced leicester superwash, 100g:

bluefaced leicester superwash, 100g:

right after „pitu“ i did the third skein of my new dying career 😉 i called it „icy lake“ because it reminds me of one. haha. it has turquoise grey and white patches.

it’s really great that i can dye my own roving for spinning now! usually i never quite got the colour combinations i wanted or the hand dyed roving was so incredibly expensive… now i’m buying cheaper undyed roving and use the colours i like. i think i’ll stick to superwash for some time as i’m afraid i’ll felt the whole roving if i use something else. need to practice on how to treat the fibres like unboiled eggs first 😉

the icy lake:

after my first success i got right back to dying the next skin. this is the result: pitu = pink-turquoise.

superwash roving again. and i used pink, purple and turquoise dyes. not that happy with the colour combination here, but i’m still learning, right 🙂

i started dying! well i did dye some sock yarn before – with easter egg colours, but got real ashford dyes for christmas this year. and this was my very, very first try dying roving ever.

after i had finished the dying and boiling i was was sooooo depressed about the result: the roving on the drying rack looked so dishevelled, all the fibres were clotted and wet and looked just horrible.

but time solved the problem and after drying the superwash roving was back to its soft and fluffy self! and i even really, really like the colours! the idea was to go for a snowy/wintery look and i think i quite managed that!

here it is, my first hand dyed roving. yay!