Friday, March 12, 2010


At last I've had a chance to try out the dying tips I learned a week or two ago. My computer and I have been engaged in hand-to-hand combat for the past three days, so messing about with anything that I actually wanted to do just didn't happen. Anyway, here it is. Its a bit blotchy, because I used the painted method which uses less of the dye product. I like it that way and am actually very pleased with the results. I used the microwave oven instead of boiling the yarn in a dye bath but I don't think I'll do that again as it uses a lot of cling film and new plastic is something I try to avoid. Next time I think I'll use the plastic bag (recycled) and a warm place method. Our Summer has gone, but I think there is enough heat left in the sunshine if I use a black plastic bag and leave it out for about 8 hours.
The two skeins on the right are my handspun, and the other two are a couple of balls of white comercial wool that I found in the op-shop. I was interested to note that the commercial yarn took the dye differently from the homespun. It's not so visible in the photo, but the yellow in the green seemed to come out in little patches, while the homespun is a more even shade. The colour is called Daintree green, by the way; for overseas bloggers, the Daintree is a particularly lovely rainforest part of Queensland in Australia. I haven't the least idea what I'm going to make from the yarn; the spinning and dying was the fun part that I was looking forward to. I still have 6 skeins to colour; by then I might have some ideas. I'm off to grab some needles now to see how it knits up.
Bye for now, until next time.

3 comments:

  1. At least you won the computer battle, I just never seem to. I love that green colour as reminds me of all the beautiful green grass around here. Lovely coulor and you are just so talented

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  2. Donz, the green is actually a little paler in real life but still pretty. The computer battle is ongoing Grr.

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  3. I been wanting to dye my own yarns, I had people telling the kool-aide one works really good and cheap. I like the way yours turned out, I don`t usally like green but that one is pretty. You did a great job.

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