I spent a wonderful evening spinning with the wonderful Mrs Moon on Friday (something that I hope is set to become a regular occurrence). And yet again, I was bowled over by her abilty to create beautiful colourways when spinning and dyeing. So spurred on by her latest creation, I decided to try some dyeing with the Ashford dyes that my gorgeous husband bought me for Christmas.
How I wish I'd had Mrs Moon's expertise on hand as I started boiling up!
I used both un-spun corridale and some that I'd spun; wenslydale awaiting spinning; and factory spun wool/mixed fibre yarn.
I was trying to dye the corridale in hot pinks, scarlets and purples into a subtle sunset yarn...... that didn't quite work. But the result will still make a nice urchin.
Unperturbed, I tried again, this time with greens, blues and teal.
EVERYTHING when dark green. Not quite what I planned. But as the
wenslydale I dyed is quite shiny, I have ended up with wool akin to a
mallard's head - not offensive.
And then I just chucked the two un-wetted-out balls of wool and mixed
yarn into the green dyebath to pick up anything that was left. I wanted
the dye to be deeper on the outside and see how much of it would seep
through to the centre of the ball. These results were quite pleasing.
Maybe a little too tie-dyed in effect, but the mossy greens and fading
will look good when kitted into a coral. I'll definitely use this
technique again with odd balls of yarn I have lying around.
But I still need help. I'll be trying to glean tips from Mrs Moon at the next Guild meeting tonight.