This category details experiments with different types of fibers
Several months ago I bought a sample card from Paradise Fibers with a whole bunch of different wool and silk fibers. I wondered, after Kaleeb’s and my experiments with natural dyes (in which the commercial wool took up the dyes much more intensely than my hand-spun), whether the breed of sheep made a large difference […]
Read more "Onions!"I’m having quite a bit of trouble with fiber preparation. I’m working on learning to comb wool for worsted spinning using a set of English combs and the kid mohair that my husband and friends conspired to get for me at Sheep-Con (that’s what my husband calls the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival) last year. […]
Read more "Fiber preparation"I had a bit of time sans kids and husband, so I knocked out quite a few colors. Same procedure as before, one small spoonful of dye powder to 4 cups of water and 1/4 cup of vinegar, 6 yard skeins, pulled every 5 minutes. The russet, emerald, and turquoise were opaque at the start […]
Read more "Dyeing for Color Part II"Ok, so after struggling with the very small dye powder weights and thinking that I was going to need to get and analytical scale to be able to do small dye lots… I found this wonderful site http://www.gfwsheep.com/rov.inst/rov.inst.html. There they suggest making up concentrated batches in gallon containers and diluting from there… Duh! Only one […]
Read more "Reinventing the Wheel"It’s spring and nature is spreading color all over the place (mostly green pollen all over my car). Since Spring Break is here, and a little bit of extra time with it, I thought I’d do my part to help. Last week I prepped ahead and ordered 10 Jacquard Acid Dyes from Sheepish Creations at […]
Read more "Dyeing for Color Part 1: Purple and Gold"