Dye Day

You know how kids neglect their homework so they can play on the computer?  Well, I've been neglecting my computer so I can play with my homework!  I had to spin 12 little skeins for the last day of Beginning Spinning.

I tried to make two different weights of yarn. I used rolags I made from fleece for nine of the skeins, and batt for the other three.  Spinning from fleece was easier for me.  I need much more practise with batt, lol!  My favorite skein turned out to be one I made just for fun from leftovers.

Homework complete, off to class I went.  We simmered our yarns in three different mordants (The minerals that fix dye to the fiber).  From top to bottom, that's our yarns after simmering in copper, alum and tron.

Then our yarns went into the dye pots of black walnut hulls, bloodroot, cochineal, and onion skins.  Here's my finished skeins, arranged by dye and mordant.

From left to right, that's black walnut hulls with alum, black walnut hulls with copper, black walnut hulls with tron, and so on.

For our final project, we each sprinkled fleece with a different commercial dye.

I think of this as our "unity fleece".  Won't that be fun to spin?

I loved class.  I loved learning something new, I loved spinning, and I loved the ladies in my class.  It was so much fun.

Next post we return to all things ranch!