Actual proper dyeing number two

I decided to do some variegated dyeing using the lovely Bendigo sock yarn hank I bought on special ages ago. It is lovely wool, soft and spongy with a nice twist.



I put down a layer of gladwrap, put the soaked skein on it, then added different coloured dyes to different bits. Actually only two colours - red and blue - with some bits where I mixed them together beforehand. And there were some bits where they mixed together of their own accord. Then I rolled up the gladwrap sausage and boiled it for a bit.



And here is the finished product!



It was a bit bright and kindergartenish, so I dyed another skein without the variegation, just in a plain purple. I thought they might blend well together. The plain purple is still not exactly a solid colour because of the many flaws in my dyeing technique, but it's less vivid than the multicoloured one. I wound them into balls and they look just like bought ones ... I'm very pleased.

Actual proper dyeing





After mucking about with food colouring for a while, I thought it was time to start doing some actual proper dyeing, with actual proper dyes. I bought some acid dyes on-line, read through the completely inadequate instructions, looked at proper instructions thank you google, translated it into metric because I live in a normal country, and wrote it all down.

Actual proper dyeing requires that you weigh the yarn. As you can see, there are two different ones here - the 100% wool cream two ply I got from Bendigo Woollen mills ages and ages ago, and a slightly heavier 50/50 wool acrylic blend from Ice. I was thinking the blend would dye a pastel, and I wanted some nice yellows to go with a variegated wool I have. I dyed it still twisted up in the hank, because I wanted some bits to be dark and some bits to be light.

Actual proper dyeing requires that you have a saucepan that is NOT USED FOR FOOD PREPARATION. I went to the op shop and got a $8 stock pot. It is surprisingly good quality, with nice high sides, a solid bottom and a glass lid.

Then you mix it together and boil it like a bastard. I took this photo through the glass lid, and had my first inkling that this wasn't actually going to be the nice golden yellow that the label said it would be. That this would actually turn out to be very bright and very ugly safety orange.

Except for the blend of course, which went a very nasty apricot. And I wasn't quite expecting there to be so much white left in the wool. So after it had been rinsed and dried I over-dyed it. Basically put it back into a nice sky-blue dye pot, thinking that it would go a pretty green on the orange bits and blue on the white bits.

HELL NO. The wool went bottle green and khaki, with patches of orange still peeping through, and the blend went a very very strange grey! Maybe a greenish grey, but not at all the dainty grass shade I was expecting.  I think I might have boiled some of the yellow out of it? Is that even possible?

I am not too upset because they are definitely colours I will use (maybe not together) but dyeing is just a complete lottery, even with measuring. The only bright spot was that it exactly matches the two large zucchini sitting on the kitchen bench. Camouflage wool, if you ever find yourself in a zucchini patch.

 

This is lovely yarn

It turns out you really do get what you pay for when it comes to wool. This is some Misti Alpaca variegated laceweight that I bought from an actual wool shop in Canberra, and a beautiful silk merino blend that I got from Ice. The silk merino isn't quite as gold as I thought it would be, but still pretty. And the alpaca is beautiful. I wasn't sure how they would be on the warp, because they both have a bit of fluff, but it worked well. 

I did stripes on the warp and alternated one row of each on the weft. It is very soft and light and lovely.

And I still have some of each left over!!! I will have to think of a project for them - perhaps not the two colours together again because I think the gold drained some of the prettiness out of the variegated one. 

Shoe polish, and ancient history

On Sunday I polished five pairs of my black shoes. This doesn't happen very often, so I took a photo as proof. They are not very shiny because I really can't be bothered buffing and buffing, but much cleaner than they were.

And this was the cloth that was used to buff them up with. A t-shirt. An old concert t-shirt - Hunters and Collectors 1993 New Zealand tour. Hunters and Collectors are an Australian band, and my husband is a massive fan (I'd never heard of them before I met him) so he went to the Wellington concert of course, back in 1993, and bought the t-shirt.

So I dug out the old photos because I knew that this favourite t-shirt made several appearances. Here we are on holiday in May 1993 - we went back to Brisbane to see his family. I am wearing a Crowded House t-shirt (although I have never been to one of their concerts, so god knows where I got it from) and a super trendy rock-with-a-hole-in-it necklace. And can you see why my boys have red hair? They had no chance of any other colour, poor things.

Both these photos are on the Sunshine Coast where we went for a day trip with his parents. I am now also wearing highly fashionable John Lennon sunglasses. Look at us, so young and bouncy... 

Hand-dyed

Back in November I dyed some skeins I found already tied up in the cupboard. Blue and black, because I had some in those colours still in balls, so I thought I would use them all together. And I did! And it is lovely, even if a bit mottled. There are blue stripes, and black stripes, and one that has a tiny bit of turquoise. Not an artistic decision, a logistical one based on what was in the drawer.



I put it on a 10 dpi heddle, and it was lovely to weave and made a nice soft scarf. It's still a bit scratchy compared to some of the blends that I'm working with - it's 100% wool which is good in some ways but not as soft as some of the more expensive wools, or when you put a bit of quality acrylic with it. Or mohair, or silk, or alpaca or one of those lovely things.



It lost a bit of colour when I wet finished it, but honestly, about the same as the commercially dyed skeins. I haven't had one single scarf not lose colour with a warm hand wash, no matter where the yarn came from. It makes me feel better about my home dyeing.

Like a substitute teacher at clown school

Which is how number two son described me when I asked him to take photos of me in the new shirt I'd made. In his defence, I had said "could you take photos of me in this terrible shirt I made, it looks ridiculous". I would like to think that if I'd said "could you take photos of me in this wonderful new shirt I made, I'm so proud of myself" he would not have made that comment. But you don't know. Teenagers can be cruel.



So the concept was sound - a loose, cotton shirt in a fairly neutral print that I could wear with jeans as a step up from  t-shirt. But it looks stupid, like a weird kimono / pyjama top. The cotton is a lovely heavy soft fabric, but was way too solid for this type of oversized shirt.

I even made it all totally properly - hand-stitched the yoke facing, pleats and plackets on the cuffs, the whole enchilada. I'm going to put it through the washer and dryer a few times to see if it softens up at all. There might be a dressing on the fabric that makes it stiff ... but I'm guessing not. I'm guessing it's just one of those disasters that seemed like a good idea at the time. Never mind, I quite enjoyed making it, between swims.

Practising my modelling poses or showing off my cuff pleats? You decide.

Beautiful beach weekend

It had been too long away from the beach for me, so I went down last weekend on my own and had a wonderful time. A massive storm came through Friday night with great cracks of lightning, torrential rain and hail; no damage done and quite spectacular. And then the rest of the weekend was just beautiful. There was a huge swell on Saturday - perhaps from the storm? I don't really know how waves work - so I got a couple of excellent swims with my boogy board. Caught some big waves ... or big for our little beach, which doesn't really get big waves. There were a few people on the beach but not heaps.

I sewed a bit, read a bit, watched Russian Doll on Netflix which I enjoyed a lot. Number two son had watched it and said it was quite "adult" (!!!! drugs and sex mostly, not entirely appropriate for a fourteen year old but what are you going to do) He got suckered in and had to binge watch all eight episodes, and so did I. 

This is a sunset shot. We don't usually get the sky reflected in the water quite as perfectly. It was very pretty.

And much much nicer than Canberra yesterday which had horrible winds and a hideous dust storm. There is normally a city behind that red haze. The winds blew over several large trees, and the red dust was on everything. Worse air quality than Beijing apparently! Back to lovely blue skies today, although the outdoor furniture is a bit grimy.