A Dyeing Day

I'm on my way down to the basement to do some dyeing. I have never dyed with fiber reactive dyes before, so am excited to experiment with that. Wish me luck. I want to dye some of the beautiful bamboo fiber I have. So picture me standing here, grooving to the music on my ipod and dyeing some what I hope will be beautiful fiber.

It is a beautiful day today, and I wish I could spend it outside, but it seems that this is the only day this week that I will have the time to dye.

I think Gerard missed me when I went to camp. He is lying on my lap, on top of my arms as I am typing this, purring very loudly. Silly cat. Not only does he enjoy helping me write blog posts, but he is fascinated by drum carding as well.

A Busy Dyeing Day

It was a busy dyeing day. I dyed my first silk, which was very exciting and not the way I usually dye. It is a wonderful thing that I am able to have a stove to use just for dyeing. I also did some more milk fiber, differently from the last time, so it will be interesting to see how that comes out. I will be rinsing everything tomorrow. I hope the weather is nice so the fiber can dye outside.

Not much else to report. I am wet and tired and on my way to bed. I am sort of a messy dyer, and have a tendency to soak myself in one way or another when I dye. Today I spilled dye on the floor, but fortunately it was a non-toxic dye. Again, I am lucky I have a designated area for dyeing where I can't hurt anything.

Doesn't it look like a wonderful place to spend hours and hours? When we bought this house I thought it was nice there was a sink in the basement, but never could have envisioned how it is being used now. Another affirmation that life is full of interesting surprises.

A Time For Dyeing

I keep forgetting this is Memorial Day weekend.  Conor has strep throat, and somehow his being so sick has made me forget that this is a holiday weekend.  Antibiotics are a wonderful thing, and he is feeling better this evening. This means that he will be in rare form tomorrow night and will be mightily lobbying to be able to stay out really, really late to make up for not having been able to go out last night and tonight.  If you look up the word persistent in the dictionary you will see Conor's picture.  It amazes me that he still hasn't figured out that I am not going to suddenly change my mind and say "Sure,  honey.  Stay out as late as you want. " 

On the dyeing front, I spent yesterday and today dyeing several pounds of fiber and yarn.  I dyed my first milk fiber and it is very soft, not just in feel, but in the way the fiber takes the dye. This is my "Marilla's Flower Garden" colorway and it looks totally different from the way it looks on any other fiber or yarn I have dyed in this colorway.  That's what is so much fun about dyeing!  It's a constant surprise how things are going to turn out.

 I dyed a lot more "Rainbow Connection" sock yarn also, which was the sample that I sent in for May's Shower and Flower themed Phat Fiber box.   I am also working on my Phat Fiber Sampler box samples for June. The theme is Oceanic, which is a theme that encompasses a large number of possibilities.  I'm just not sure what direction to take.  I have been  thinking of only sending in fiber samples, because fiber seems to be the thing that people are most excited about when they receive the boxes, but I have received more positive responses to my yarn samples for May than for my fiber samples.  I'm so confused-a not unusual state for me.  Here's some more of what I dyed yesterday.  Tomorrow morning I'm looking forward to rinsing what I dyed today and seeing what emerges.

Tomorrow we had better spend a little time on outside chores.  There is a lot of weeding to do. Plants are growing like crazy.  It hasn't been that warm yet, but we have had a lot of rain.  I have some wildflowers which have come back this year-very exciting.

We need to get the pool open, but that requires pumping out the pool cover, which requires removing all the leaves from the fall.  I think Conor has done a pretty good job of removing them, so we'll be borrowing my brother's pump and getting the water out.  The cover is also a massive mosquito breeding place, another reason to get it off the pool.  The weather has been so chilly that there hasn't been much motivation to get the pool open, but I want it to be ready on the off chance that we actually get warm weather.  I live in the land of optimism.

Thinking about all that needs to be done tomorrow is making me think I'd better get myself to sleep, so I have lots of energy to accomplish my tasks.  I think I may have promised the boy a trip to the mall too.  Silly me.

Dyeing Day

I spent the day dyeing,  and mixing dyes, and am planning to do the same tomorrow.  I believe I created some interesting colors and can't wait to see how the yarn and fiber come out.  I am very tired and must take myself to bed now.  I will share some pictures as soon as I have finished product.

I did take a break and go outside for a few minutes and sweep the leaves off the back porch.  What a beautiful day it was!  I poked under some leaves from the fall and saw some green popping up.  I am ecstatic and can't wait to get out in the garden and tell Conor what he has to do.  So I not only have the pleasure of gardening, but of ordering Conor around as well.  The thought makes me smile.

Today was the third Phat Fiber Box Sale and they sold out in something like 90 seconds.  It seems there were a lot of angry people who did not get boxes and took it out on Jessie, the woman who's brainchild it is, by sending her nasty e-mails.  I often really wonder what is wrong with people.  Nothing horrible will happen to these people if they don't receive a box.  I am hoping to get some sales from the box this month.  I didn't from the first month's box, so we'll see how this month goes.  

Must go to bed now.  I know it looks like I did two posts in one day, but the earlier post was actually finished at around 12:30 last night, so I consider that to be a Saturday post, even if it was officially posted on March 14th.

A Question of Dyeing

I have spent the last couple of days taking photos of yarn and fiber and listing the yarn and fiber on etsy. The most frustrating part of the process for me is getting the photos to accurately show the colors in the yarn. I also don't think that I am very good at color description. I need to amass a collection of color words that describe the myriad shades of blue, green, purple, red, and brown which occur when I dye.


I am always amazed when dyeing to see how different fibers and yarns take up the dye differently. Below is an example of the colorway "Island in the Sun" on superwash wool roving.



Below is a picture of the same colorway, using the exact same dyes on Shetland wool roving. The colors are much more muted on this wool then they are on the superwash wool.



I think the constant surprise is one of the reasons I enjoy dyeing so much. This constant surprise can also be a source of stress when trying to create a colorway that you can see in your mind, but can't quite seem to translate using dye powders. But it's always fun, and sometimes the colors that emerge might not be the exact color I am looking for, but I will make a color that I can use in another way. Then the issue becomes making sure to write down exactly what steps I have taken to reach that particular color (including the 1/16 of something I added at the end, just to see what would happen). Anyone who knows me well knows that I am more of a happy accident kind of person than a let's keep precise records kind of person. It's not that I don't keep records, it's that I have an issue with preciseness.

I also had a case of the vapors yesterday and had to take to my bed. Sometimes life gets too overwhelming and I find it necessary to retreat to bed with a good book (or in this case, back episodes of Dr. Who), a cup of tea, a bit of good chocolate, and, of course, some knitting. When I do this, I shut the rest of the world out for a short time, and somehow the next day when I get up, life seems a bit more easy to cope with.

Happiness is Harrisville in August, 2009

Two years ago I took Lynne Vogel's Dyeing, Spinning, and Knitting class in Harrisville, NH and it was a truly wonderful experience, so I did it again last year. I decided to start 2009 in the right way so today I signed up to go again this year. It makes me very happy to have done that. Harrisville is the little town that time forgot, and is one of the most relaxing places I've ever been. I stay in the boarding house, and there is no TV and no internet access. It is quite wonderful to get away from those things for a few days. By staying at the boarding house (it was one of the original boarding houses for women mill hands many years ago) I was able to really get to know the people I was taking the class with.


Lynne is an awesome teacher. She has so much knowledge of color, spinning, knitting and crocheting, and teaches the way I need to learn, which is very student driven and not rigid. Both summers I have met some wonderful people and am looking forward to seeing some of them again this year.



It's snowing here today, and very cold, so it is nice to have the class to look forward to when looking out the window and seeing the snow falling. Not that I don't like the snow, but I know we have a lot more in the future and by March I will be quite sick of it. A few days ago we had 50 degree weather for about half a day and much of the snow melted. That was a good thing because it made some room for the snow that is to come.