Booga J

Can you believe that I used the same colors to dye these two rovings? So, what was the difference? The one on the left was dyed using the "hot pour" method and the one on the right was dyed using the "cold pour" method. Here's a full length picture which shows off the colors a bit better:

In the hot pour method you put everything in a pot and simmer it. The colors tend to blend a lot more. In the cold pour method, you put dye on the wet wool and spray it down with vinegar. Then you wrap it up in plastic wrap and steam it! Very quick and easy. This is now my preferred method of dyeing.

And since I have been feeling a little down lately, I decided to make myself a new toy! Here is my distaff. And I found the directions to make it here. I used handspun bfl that was plied using the navajo-ply method. This yarn was also dyed by me! It worked really well when I was spinning last night, so I am really happy with it!

Yep it's all done! (Well, not really. . . there are pesky ends tucked inside that need to be woven in but I'm not sure how to do that with this tape type yarn.) This was very fun and quick to knit, but I don't think that I would use such a bulky yarn for a tight-fitting garment again. I think a finer gauge would have been best for a little tank top.
You didn't think that that I finished one project without starting another, did you?
Here's my yarn and pattern for the daypack from "Two Old Bags". I got the pattern and yarn from my buddies over at ThreadBear. I also dyed some more wool yesterday. More on that tomorrow!

Of course I had to pull out everything and start dyeing the day my dye kit arrived. The results weren't what I expected, but they weren't bad either. Here's what I did.


First I soaked the yarn and roving in water while I perpared all the supplies. The yarn was some Cascade 220 in a natural color and the roving was Blue Faced Leister. Then I mixed up the dyes -- I used lanaset -- and I started to heat up the pot with the yarn and roving inside in a generous amount of water with some vinegar added. I poured on the dyes and let it simmer. You can see what it looked like. Here's where things strayed from my plan. I was supposed to wait until the wool sucked up most of one color dye before I added another. I didn't really understand this part and didn't wait long enough. So, everything mixed together.


After the water in the pan was almost clear and was almost room temp, I took out the wool and gently washed it and rinsed it. Then I laid it out to dry. You can see the Cascade above. I think you need to soak yarn longer than roving. The roving got wet very quickly, but the Cascade wasn't as wet and didn't take up as much dye.


The roving was a little scary. I was afraid that I had created a big felted mess, but much to my delight it was as spinnable as ever after it dried out. Whew! There was some nice subtle variation in the roving and it was fun to spin and ply.


Here it is still on the spindle after plying and . . .


Here it is all finished. I was able to put it into a lovely hank with the help of my super fun new swift! (I think Pete was seeing the benefits of buying this for me already -- he didn't have to sit and be my yarn holder like he usually does!)

Yipee!! They are finally here! My long lost swift and winder have finally completed their journey from distant lands to me. I've already been playing with them (and so has Fancy -- the kitten)! Thank you Booga P -- I love them! And thank you to the guys at ThreadBear -- the swift & winder were worth the wait! Gotta go play with my new toys some more, but tomorrow I will have pictures of my first adventure in dyeing fibers.