Feels like I have been dyeing everything in sight the last couple of days :)
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This is just todays dyeing... Norwegian wool tops & silk chiffon |
I had a big wool order a couple of weeks ago, all undyed. So last week I brought an Ashford chemical dye set - 12 colour pots, each one will dye a kilo to full strength.
Yesterday and today have been my first 'go' with them - today I even found a second dyepot so I could get more done. I have 2 kg of Norwegian tops and wanted quite a few strong colours, so I decided to dye up 100g of each colour.. decided not to bother yet with black & brown. They are all strong, clear colours and I think I should manage to get quite a few shades by mixing, and making weaker dyepots too. The only thing I have struggled with is my darned scales! They are playing up and not reliably measuring the tiny quantities I needed. Ashford dont give a teaspoon guide like some of the other dyes I have had (i.e. 1/2 tsp = 5g or whatever). So I resorted to guessing & then weighing the pot to see how much it had gone down. Turns out I'm a pretty good guesser :)
So now I've done 1100g of my Norwegian tops (they look like a super bright rainbow) and 4 meters of silk chiffon, in scarf length pieces. I must admit I'm not keen on the smell though - glad I have finished for now!
I've just had a big order of sari silk fibres & silk scraps for my Folksy shop. I quite enjoyed getting them sorted, weighed and packed over the weekend - Monday I got them into my shop. its nice seeing them all in there, they look pretty :)
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Unfortunately the photo doesnt do justice, they looked so bright and pretty all lined up like this |
I have also had my carder and spinning wheel out to play! Carded up this batt with lots of banana silk fibre in it so I could take an example photo for the listing..
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| Sunrise? or sunset? cant quite decide which it reminds me of most.. |
ANd now I'm spinning it in bits and dabs, whenever I get 5 minutes of quiet time I spin a little more..
And now another week is almost over... another weekend nearly here - where does the time go?!
xx
3 comments:
What a happy and colorful post!!! I have never tried Ashford dyes. Have you tried Jacquard? If you have how do they compare to the Ashford? I am running through my Jacquard and will need to order more dyes soon. This might be the time to try something new. :)
Hi Kelly :) I havent tried Jacquard dyes. You have been getting beautiful results from them!
Ive use Jacquard Dynaflow silk & textile paints (used them to paint my Earthmother doll, pic on Folksy) I find them REALLY good! You fix either with a hot iron, or with a heatgun/hairdrier. I used them to paint the silk ribbon on the tiny frames challenge too.
I have used & really like the Landscape Dyes (you dont need to add anything to these), but I needed so many colours, most of which were only available in the big pots, it was going to work out a lot dearer than buying a complete set of Ashford... so I decided to give 'em a go.
With the Ashford dyes, its 1g of dye + 1 tablespoon vinegar to 100g dry weight fibre. Once heated to boiling you simmer for 30 minutes, they fix well too, nothing running out when I rinse. You have to put a teaspoon of baking soda into the dyepot before throwing it away to neutralise any remaining acid.. I've never had to do that before. The dyes penetrate the wool tops very well.
What do you use for a dyepot? I'm wondering whether to get a Burco Boiler so I can do it out in the garage (dont like the fumes in the house)
x
Hi Deborah,
Those colors are just gorgeous and your yarn is so pretty xo
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