Dyeing Adventure

I realized today that I never blogged about my dyeing adventure a few weeks ago.

I had bought a whole bag of Bluefaced Leicester white spinning fiber some time back, thinking I’d dye it first and then spin. I’ve discovered that it is a whole lot easier to felt unspun fiber than yarn, so after one attempt, I spun it first with plans to dye later. Here is the result.

 

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The dye material is tickseed, or Coreopsis (with a bit of dried marigold I had saved from last year that wasn’t enough to dye anything by itself). John planted these in pots down by the lake, and I’ve been dead-heading them since they started blooming earlier this summer. I simmered in water for an hour or so, then let sit overnight (mostly because I ran out of time). The next morning I strained out the flowers, and in went the wool.

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The wool was mordanted with a mixture of alum and cream of tartar to help the dye set. It all simmered for another hour, then I let it sit until it was cool. Then out of the dye pot, rinse, dry, and skein it up.

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That is 366 grams of wool, about 790 yards total. I think it will make a nice rustic wrap of some sort.

 

I’m home from work today with a migraine, not getting a whole lot accomplished. It’s getting better at this point, though I still feel like somebody poured Karo syrup into my brain. It makes for a waste of a perfectly good day off.

 

And, because it’s my blog, and I can, I’m posting one more photo of my last finished project. I posted this on Facebook, and somebody commented that all it needed was a tiara. Here you go, Dorothy.

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Though THIS is the one I really want.

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So you suppose Princess Sofia will send that to me when she grows tired of it?

 

Author: Lorette

My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!

4 thoughts on “Dyeing Adventure”

  1. Beautiful shawl! Hope the goo leaves quickly. And I’m sure there are Sofia knock-offs out there…..

  2. So sorry about the migraine. But your yarn is lovely and the tiara shot is just perfect!

  3. You made some pretty string! Your FO is very gorg – I’m sure Princess Sophia will give you the tiara right off her head if she saw how pretty it is. 🙂

    Sorry about your cephalalgia. I too hate the drug hangover after treating a migraine, but the day wasn’t wasted. You were resting!

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