Seabreeze Spinners

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Used Gaywool Dye to dye hand spun 2 ply wool. Dyed natural wool hand spun yellow & pumpkin but then over-dyed grey hand spun for rich tones of chocolate , blue and cinnamon. Attempted to hand paint grey roving but didn’t like the results. Colors didn’t work. Over-dyed hand painted roving with purple and magenta with less success; it matted. But after going through the hand carder several times and adding a little bling … the roving was lovely and spun up beautifully.

Tropical Twister

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Completed the hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit lace shawl. The pinks blended nicely but to pick it up a bit I knit lace panels. The lace was knit from a bit of yarn previously spun. The yarn was a caliopi of colors but not enough for any project…but, a great accent. See the finished shawl below.

Happy “Black Friday”

Tropial Twister

I feared I hadn’t enought yarn for both socks so I knit the first sock just past the completed heel and then started the second sock. I’ve knit it through to the same spot. When I get home I plan to spin a bit more yarn and then dye the additional yarn. It will be used to finish off the toes. It may not be exactly the same but the sock tops will look similar. I purposely alternated the yarns to create stripes but while each sock complements the other, they are not the same. I like variations on the same theme.

Tropical Twister

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The thrift shop near my office had a sale (50 cents a box) on Easter Egg dye, so I loaded up. I first wet my fiber in a water bath with a little detergent and rinsed it with clear water. I filled custard cups with 3T each of white vinegar. (When I ran out of white, I used apple cider, amber, vinegar…seemed to work just fine.) I then added a dye tablet to each cutard cup (and a few Jack Daniels old fashioned glasses.) After the dye stopped fizzing, I added 1/2 cup of water and stirred. Then I plunged pieces of fiber into the various cups.

After the fiber had absorbed much of the dye, I started at one end lifting the fiber from the dye baths squeezing excess as I went. I scrolled the dyed fiber out on multi layers of paper toweling. I rolled the fiber up like a jelly roll and put it in the microwave. I “nuked” it on high for 1 minute, paused and repeated 2 times for a total of three minutes. I unrolled the paper toweling to reveal the finished fiber. I then rinsed the fiber and hung it to dry. Very little dye rinsed out; the microwave had set the dye. My plan is to spin the fiber once it dryes and knit it into socks, thus, the Hand Dyed Easter Socks … keep watching http//Seabreezespinners.com/ for more on this project. (The flowers are from my Valentine bouquet.)

Tropical Twister

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I had a bobbin of mixed fiber which had been created by demonstrating spinning and having people try their own hand at spinning. I decided to try a dying project.

I soaked the skeined yarn. I then sprinkled it with brown and blue dye crystals. Then wrapped it in plastic wrap.

I placed the wrapped yarn in the microwave for 8 minutes. When finished, I removed the dyed yarn from the microwave and flushed it with tap water to remove excess dye. I then rised the yarn with “Soak Wash” to remove any remaining chemicals.

Dye Disaster: I had tied the wool skein with some inexpensive synthetic yarn rather than waste good wool. WRONG! The synthetic yarn melted and burned in the microwave. When the synthetic yarn melted and burned, where it was tied it burned through the wool yarn.

It was a disaster, but I’ll try the technique again. But I think I’ll try it on rooving before it is spun. I think I’ll avoid the microwave. I’ve cured dying projects in a trash bag before and I think I’ll do it again. Will post my experience in future posts.

Tropical Twister

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