Sunday, June 27, 2010

Lots of dyeing

Lots more yarns rewound and labelled for the shop. Some of them are even repeatable (up to a point) as colourways. I actually wrote them down as I dyed the colours. The 'retail' ready skeins take ages to prepare so I can understand dyers choosing not to do this additional step in the process.
So to clear the palate I'm weaving lots of cream alpaca for a commission. a 2ply alpaca yarn that is very soft and gorgeous.
And.... some one colour, semi solid dyeing. This is more time consuming than the multicolour skeins strangely enough as I'm trying to get the colour fairly flat and saturated and not too streaky.
The red is balled up ready to go, two box loads of this colour amounting to about 19 kilos in just the red. The colour is actually darker than the photo suggests. No wonder my arms are tired. All handspun (not mine), just dyeing this load was enough work for me. Next stop is off to a weaver in the North Island.

4 comments:

Jody said...

I have only briefly delved into dying yarns. Anyone can dye but not everyone can make beautifully dyed yarns. Yours are gorgeous Doe and I wish I could see them in person. The cream coloured weaving is very lovely as well.

Doespins said...

Thanks Jody,
The next lot of yarns are going to be naturally dyed which will be even more time consuming.
I've been dyeing my fibres and yarns for the last 25 plus years. I do love the natural animal colours too.

Shirley Goodwin said...

Yummy yarns! Glad you're enjoying my travel photos.

Angie said...

Wow ...that cream piece is wonderful ...as is your dyed yarns. I understand a tiny bit about dyes as a young friend, many moons ago, dabbled with dyes from lichens and onion skins ...and other plants ...I remember something about ?mordents giving different colours.
I also looked back at a shawl you made last year ...irish style crochet ....wow