Exhausted

A dye pot is said to be "exhausted", when all the colour has been taken up by the fibre and virtually none remains in the water . . . A textile artist, on the other hand, is said to be exhausted when surrounded by colour and texture, but unable to take up anything at all.

I dropped this skein in the dye pot several days ago. I'd already dyed a few other skeins in a previous batch and this one finished it off. The dye pot is exhausted: And I couldn't be bothered rinsing it out, or retaking the picture to get the yarn in focus, or combing out the merino I have washed, or even knitting a few rows. I think I'll put on a DVD: I borrowed the Buena Vista Social Club from the local library. That sounds like a happy way to spend a slow Australia Day afternoon.

Dip Dye

Dip Dye seems to be all the range in fashion this season. With fabric the technique gives horizontal bands of colour. Used with yarn, it's another way of getting a variegated skein. I decided to have a go with a leftover bit of lace-weight yarn. It's been dangling in the dyepot for several days now. I've looped it over one of the handles to keep it in position. I heated up the pot a few days ago to set the colour, but then didn't get as far as rinsing it out. Now the colour has travelled a bit further, so today I'll cook it up again and see what I get. In case you're wondering about the pic: the autofocus on my camera has fixed on the reflection in the dyebath, so the skein itself is a bit fuzzy. Sorry about that, but hopefully you get the idea.

Here's a macro shot of the part of the skein that's not in the dyebath. You can see how the dye has been drawn up along some of the fibres. That's capillary action at work!