Friday, February 4, 2011

I feel like a Smurf!

I just finished dyeing a few pounds of wool.  While I was immersing the wool into the royal blue dye, I accidentally pushed the edge of my glove into the dye and yes, as you have probably guessed, I filled my glove up with blue dye!  But the results were worth it-the colors are yummy!  I also dyed some green tonight- about 1 lb.  I had a bag of scraps and bits of roving that I had been using for flowers and small objects.  I decided to throw the whole lot ( approx. 6 oz.) into the green dye too.  I love the result of the variegated greens I ended up with.  Even the hot pink over dyed into a pretty mossy green!  I needed a variety of greens for a panel I am working on and this gave me a huge variety of shades to work with......not too bad for scraps! Too late to dry tonight so I will post those pictures tomorrow.

9 comments:

  1. Oh noooooo, my friend is turning into a Smurf! LOL
    Love the colors of the wool.:)
    Hugs

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  2. tehehe, I think I end up dyeing my hands every time I work with fiber. Why do I bother with gloves? Now that you've dyed the wool...I look forward to seeing what you create with it.

    Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

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  3. Pretty colors, I can't wait to see the project!

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  4. pretty color, I think stuff made with these two colors would be great. Love to see it if you made. Like your fonts.

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  5. love the colours and the blue hand is an extra gift:)

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  6. I always end up with an awful mix of colors all over my hands when I dye. I'm a messy girl! Love the new blog layout and header! Is there a template in Blogger to add in your own photos? xx

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  7. I agree-the blue hand adds something great. The colors are lovely (on the fibers). After using hand dyed and hand painted rovings of others I am starting to head that direction and I discovered your posting this morning.. I dyed one piece of silk with aosage orange natural dye but am open to others, and info and blue hands! Do you use acid dyes or natural dyes..or both?And do you ever dye using steam to create multiple colors on one roving?

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  8. Sharon-I am using the basic blogger background and added my own header under the page elements section. If you click on edit in the header section, there is a place to upload your image. Hope this helps.

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  9. Ginny,
    I have only tried acid dyes so far. For solid color dyeing I soak my wool in vinegar and water for approx. 15 minutes. I then add the wool to a hot water, vinegar, and dye bath. I let set for another 15-20 minutes. I then remove the wool from the dye bath (leaving it soaking wet)and place in a microwaveable covered contained (I like using the Hefty EZ ovenware containers) and steam set for 4 minutes in the microwave. I keep it in the covered container for another 10 minutes or so and then I rinse. I have had greatresults using this method. For hand painted wool the only difference is not using the dye bath, but using large basters to place the dye where I want it while the wool is in the container. I have experimented and realized the steam setting really keeps much of the dye in the wool and cuts down on any bleeding of colors when I wet felt. Hope this helps!

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