Soaked, Whacked and Finished

I don't have all the gory details, but here are some pics showing the road to a finished yarn:

Acid dyes, BFL roving and jar

The fiber gets crammed into a jar pretty tightly to prevent felting.

Sprinkle an eensy teensy bit of the three dyes on top of the roving.Pour vinegar water over dyes. This takes a long time, letting air bubbles work out and making sure that the jar gets really filled. It seems that way more water goes in than there is room in the jar.  Watch the dyes spread throughout the jar and roving.Filled jar.Simmer, but don't rolling boil, for about 45 minutes.

This is where the photo documentation gets, well, it is non-existant. Or at least I can't find it, so imagine: I let the jar set overnight until it was cool. Removing the roving from the jar I rinsed it, but to my disappointment there was a lot of white left in the roving. So, I let it dry then I packed it back into the jar, but I put little bits of dye in a few spots in the jar as I layered the roving and repeated the dye process. This was much better, but unfortunately I cannot find the photos. This is what I do have:

Roving, dyedSingles.PliedA skein of finished handspun yarn. Made by me.

This yarn is really a blue-green, but a lot greener than you might think. Of course, not one of the photos is spot on. Trust me, it is pretty and soft and squishy and spongy. It is well balanced and the plying is excellent in some spots, pretty good in most and, well, barely passable in others. I'm guessing at about 275 or so yards of worsted weight yarn. Total guess.

Two hundred five to go. I'm on a  spin!  I mean, a roll!

Comments

[margene]

What a great idea!! It's totally beautiful...I totally love it.

[Carole]

Great idea. And way better than the way we dyed roving out in Utah!

[Nora]

I'm in awe.

[Chris]

Nicely done, every step. Good for you!

[Marcia Cooke]

In this weather, you can do the dyeing outside, solar style! Yours came out lovely, though, and makes me think I should go dye something!

[michelle]

Now I must go color something! That came out beautiful, way to go.

[Beth S.]

Dyeing scares me a bit, but this method doesn't look nearly as daunting as the one with all the saran wrap. In fact, you make it look downright easy! :-)

[Julie]

That is some seriously pretty yarn!

[Imelda / GreenishLady]

Oh, that looks gorgeous, and even if the colour isn't exactly true, I love it. If it's greener, maybe I love it even more!

[Kathy]

This is a fantastic tutorial. I have some white merino I bought two Rhinebecks ago and some dye -- may give it a whirl.

[Suzanne]

I am going to have to try that. I have done solar dyeing and I usually do any other dyeing in a turkey roaster. Using a jar looks like more fun.

[claudia]

That is a beautiful dye-and-spin job.

[Katy]

I love it!
And I think I have some of those dyes sitting around somewhere...hmmm. ;)

[Kim]

Terry, it's beautiful!!!

[Laurie]

Very cool process, with some handsome yarn as a result. That turned out amazingly!

[CyndiG]

That is so cool! What are you going to make with it?

[Kim]

That is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

[maryse]

that is so cool! where did you learn how to do that? i want to do that.

[Lynn]

So, maybe you need a short, squat, wide-mouthed jar, so you only have to dye once. Or pack the roving more loosely. Damn, now I want to dye, too!

[JessaLu]

Very pretty - and a cool technique!

[Danielle]

Really nice! Now I want to dye.

[Jessica]

Gorgeous. I'll send you my address so you can get it in the mail to me. ;)