Saturday, June 28, 2014

A New Way to Dye

 Before anyone starts dyeing anything here, lets go back to the source.


 This filthy stinky pile of icky poo is a Merino fleece from the 2013 MDSW. I pulled it all out the other day and let it air out in the sun. It's getting a bit ripe.


Before I could haul out the dye, the locks must be washed first so I took a deep breath and dug in.


 Once I had several trays of clean, white locks I could dump dye on them.


 All last summer I had been dipping those locks into warm dye one at a time and it took forever. It only took me an entire year to figure out an easier and quicker way to do this. Splash and squish.


 I used the same heating method as last year. A minute or two in the microwave heated them up sufficiently for the dye to exhaust after a short rest period.


 A rinse and a quick spin and it was a done deal.


 Now I've got bags and bags of blue locks....


 ...waiting to be snipped and snapped for spinning.


 My house looks like a wool processing factory when it's raining. I'm also still washing the Shetland but not having any dye fun with it-yet.

4 comments:

  1. ugh oh you know I love blue. YOUR ripe wool came out amazing!

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  2. I love how you've decorated your kitchen! Will you be spinning this for the Tour Dr Fleece? Great idea for dyeing locks!

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  3. I see you have your little helper in the kitchen with you!

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  4. Such pretty shades of blue. Can't wait to see how the shades spin up.

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