Hot

Our run of incredibly warm late winter weather continues--as does my pursuit of sunset colours. I bought some extra white wool top the other day to do some more dyeing experiments. When my eye hit on this orange, it had to come home with me too.

So, I have this running through my fingers at the spinning wheel and a skein in the dye pot brewing a pink-orange combination. The forecast is for showers later today, but I don't think I care!

Chasing Rainbows

I got back to some spinning on the weekend. And the logical follow-on was a bit of dyeing. Here's one of the skeins.

I was chasing sunset colours. That's a never-ending game. I came up with some happy products, which I'm planning to use for a few scarves. Meanwhile I'm learning a bit more about how different proportions of my dyes work out in the pot.

Other Things

I spun a bobbin of big yarn yesterday:

There's 100 g of this now waiting for the dye-pot and another 100 g on the table waiting for me to spin it up. It doesn't take long. This is not the fine merino I usually spin, but more suitable for the chunky look. Hopefully it will take the dye well. I also did 100 g of the fine stuff a few days ago--that was many hours of concentrated spinning--so I'm building towards a dyeing day. It's been a while and I'm missing it. That's something to look forward to.

Problem Solving

I finished dyeing this skein of yarn yesterday. I was experimenting with bound resist--stopping the flow of colour to different areas of fibre by tieing the skein with string. That aspect was successful and I have a nice range of colours, but the yarn was a softly spun merino and it didn't take well to the amount of handling involved in the process. The fibres have felted together a bit. Apart from the effect on the yarn itself, winding off a skein of felted yarn is a challenge. I've set up my ball winder on the table and the skein is over the back of a chair. There's a bit of tension between the two. Add a tug here and there and I managed to wind it off. Now I'm knitting a scarf. It's an unusual sensation with the stitches gripping the bamboo needles more than usual. I'll see how I go. Certainly I'm learning heaps!

Conflict Management

I've had the dyepots out again lately. I'm experimenting with tied resist. The process involves binding areas of the yarn or fabric tightly with string to prevent the dye penetrating that area. Then when the tie is removed and rearranged another colour can be added.

Here's a problem I encounter every time I work with my dye pots: I have a smallish kitchen with a standard four-burner stove. The scenario this morning is that I have a skein of yarn and a big piece of silk in the pot at the top of the pic. The pot below it is my dinner--chicken and sweet corn soup. The big aluminium pot on the third burner is one of my dye pots--I always keep separate equipment for dyeing. There is one spare burner for my coffee-pot, but it's hard to reach with everything else going on. Now the soup is cooked, so I can brew myself a coffee before moving on to the next task.

The laundry of my dreams has room for a small two-burner electric stove next to the laundry tubs. I have plans approved by Council, but I have yet to find a builder willing to commit to such a small task. I'm shy of managing the project myself after my experience with the studio last year. That's a different sort of conflict to resolve in my mind before I can solve the tangle on my stove in the longer term.

Small Sweet Things

Perfect Easter weather: blue sky, sunshine and just a little nip of cold in the air. Yesterday I wore this little "hug" around my neck. I was amazed how much warmth it added to my t-shirt and 3/4 length jeans outfit. It's a little sweetie I made out of leftovers from a dyeing exercise: handspun merino ranging from magenta through cyan. I'm more or less sticking to my low-calorie sweets plan for Easter. I've decided that hot-cross buns for breakfast are exempt.

Boiled Cable

Getting back into routine at home: out came my dyepots. I've got an idea for a project and I think this felted cable jumper might do the trick. It started off a dullish mulberry colour. Yesterday I boiled it up with a big dollop of marine blue. I'm always amazed at how much dye a piece of felted wool will take. I rinsed it out last night. I wasn't convinced I had the colour right. This morning it will go back into the pot with as much magenta dye as it will take. I'll see how it looks after that and take the next step.

Meanwhile I've got a new crochet project going to keep me company with my morning cup of coffee. And I have some quilt projects to get started. Yep, I'm home!

Book Bonanza

By yesterday afternoon I was feeling tired, slow and sad. It's been a big week and I was running out of steam. On days like that I can't wait for it to be bed-time--even though there's no guarantee I'll be able to sleep when I get there. Filling in the last few hours of the day can be a real challenge. Enter the local library: I dropped in to see what I could find about silk painting. The Community Quilt project I'm working with will involve some silk; and we're planning for the women to decorate scarves for themselves. While I was there I checked out the catalogue for anything on Indigo dyeing. That drew a blank, but I did score several books on colour and a dyeing manual. By the time I'd picked up some groceries for tea and driven home via one of the other branch libraries to collect their contributions, the day was done. I didn't actually read any of these books last night, but just having them on the table was a boost.

Budding

I guess I've been rather out of touch with the garden and its seasons lately. When I did a big day of weeding on Sunday, I was surprised to find that the dwarf nectarine tree at the back of the garden is budding already. I love the tiny burst of pink against the grey-brown. I'd like to try for something like that in my dye pot. Dyeing isn't high on today's priorities, though. I have my budding home improvement projects to care for instead. The plans are nearly ready to go to Council. And I have to keep weeding through my accumulated craft and sewing collections to see what earns a place in my new studio.

Big and Bold

I had "Fat Singles" on my to do list yestarday. OK, no jokes about dating prospects are allowed! These Fat Singles are wool: thick wool, with just enough twist to hold it together and not enough twist to require plying to balance it. The dyeing process helps to relax out the twist, and--of course--adds the strong colour. There's nothing subtle about these, unless it's the variations in shades, which always manage to surprise and delight me. On my first attempt I drew the wool out too much. The singles were too thin and kept breaking. Then by the time I'd added enough twist to hold them together, they really needed to be plied to prevent them twisting on themselves. I called that pair, the mixed doubles. You can see the two skeins on the right side of the pic. My next attempt was much more successful. I have more of these to do today as well as some more shawl pins. I've also got a bit of paperwork to get through and a couple of appointments, so I'll have to manage my time carefully to make the most of the day.

Adding Colour

My skein of Finn-cashmere spindle-spun yarn has undergone a transformation in the last week.I've been progressively adding colour--five related blue-greens to be precise. The photo doesn't quite pick up the subtleties of the variation, but it's definitely not white any more. Now that it's dyed and rinsed and dried, I can think about knitting it up. First I need to make some decisions about what I'd like to make. Then a bit of sampling will be in order. I also need to document my process, since I'm planning to include this article as part of my folio.

Meanwhile, I've been working away at different preparation methods for worsted spinning. More of that to come.

My friend D is safely home, having flown from about 15 degrees in Melbourne in the morning to something like 36 in Brisbane by the time she landed. I must say, I'd rather be home, wearing a sweatshirt and spinning away!

Tidying Up

The year is already more than a week old and the festivities are well and truly over. Now I need to get into some sort of rhythm to achieve the things that are important to me in the next couple of months. One major task is my Spinning Certificate Folio. I did lots of work for that as the classes and workshops happened last year, but there's also a fair bit that needs to be completed and tidied up.

Yesterday was a hot day--the first of several forecast to culminate in the low forties early next week. That's Centigrade, by the way. My personal take on hot days is that if the outside temperature is below body temperature I cope OK. So anything under, say 36 I won't really complain about--well not much! But if I'm spinning or knitting, it's a different story. The rate limiting step there is sweaty hands. I can't spin effectively if my hands are sweating. Anyway, yesterday was too hot to spin, but I really wanted to do something constructive for my folio. So I tidied up my dyeing samples. Here they are all nicely arranged and labelled:I also put together a few pages of notes on colour theory and colour mixing. That's one unit I can tick off the list. I've done all that's required. Of course, looking at the material makes me want to research and experiment a whole lot more, but that wouldn't count as tidying up. So I'm not going to go there. My plan is to complete each unit--there are 11--to the required standard. Then I can play around with extras. I also need to plan and complete a "major project". At the moment my main trouble there is too many ideas. I might solve that by doing a collection of smaller pieces. That way I can just keep adding to it, or stop when I have to.

OK, next lot of tidying up: there's a box full of fleece samples and partially labelled skeins stashed under my weaving bench. I really need to start to sort that out.

Potential

There's something particularly exciting about white: Here I have two widths of silk ribbon and a stranded silk yarn suitable for embroidery. Two of them I picked up at Beautiful Silks the other day, the third was already waiting for my attention. They're here for colour and testing. I get to do the dyeing and then my friend, D does the testing. She loves silk ribbon embroidery and I love colour. It's a good combination. So, here's the plan . . .

• I need to find a way of securing each of these little packages of fibre so that they don't go berserk in the dyepot
• They need a good soak to help the colour to penetrate properly
• I need to find the right pot to dye them in, I think I can use the smaller of my two dyepots with as little water as possible
• Meanwhile I'm desperately running around the colour wheel in my head--like the proverbial hamster--what colours shall I add?
• I'm going to put the three different fibres in the same dyepot, then they'll easily work in together for whatever project D comes up with.
• Rinsing and drying and then deciding whether to pop them in the mail, or have the pleasure of handing them over in person.

Right, I have a plan! As usual there's a small snag--yep, the kitchen sink. It's currently full of dirty dishes. Clear those and I'm on my way.

Shadow Colours

Saturday's dyeing day at the Guild was a good mixture of colour theory and practical exercises. The last exercise of the day involved mixing a secondary colour with it's complement. These are colours which are opposite each other on the colour wheel. I chose marine blue and citrus orange. Here are my samples: You can see how the blue gets duller as more orange is added. The second bag from the right contains 4 parts of orange to 1 part of blue. The wool is dark-grey, almost black. The other two gray-blue samples are colours I might use, even though my personal preference is for bright, clear colours.

We did the dyeing in the snap-lock bags. It's a great way to manage lots of small samples at the same time. They can all go in the pot and the colours stay separate, unless one of the bags bursts--that happened a couple of times. I have yet to rinse these samples. My little skeins are hanging out to dry. I'll post photos of them soon.

Just Add Colour

Today's topic in the Spinning Certificate class is dyeing. We're told to bring "lots of small skeins". Here's my little collection: I've wound them off this morning on my medium sized niddy-noddy. There's about 10 metres in each skein--just plain white wool. I'm not sure exactly what the plan is for today, but if it involves dyeing, it's got to be good.

Reality Check

I thought I might get to do some dyeing yesterday afternoon. I had a picture to inspire me and it's really been too long since I played with colour. So I checked through my requirements:

• dyes--check--I could do with some more greens, but there's enough to get on with;
• dyepots--check--I even washed and put them away after my last batch of dyeing
• fibre--check--there's always plenty of fibre!
• kitchen sink--uh oh!

So instead of a batch of dyeing, I did a batch of washing up:

Now I have a kitchen sink. Maybe today or tomorrow I can do some dyeing.