Who's my pal?

I got this wonderful package from my pal last week.


The yarn is sooo soft - it's alpaca lace. What should I make from it? The scarf is handdyed silk scarf, and check out the cute mug! Oh yeah, the candle is hand-painted too! Thank you, Pippins! I've been really good and did not steal a peek at the match rosters that Zona and I both have access to. All I know is that my pal's nickname is Pippins and the packages come from MD. So, I'm dying to know who my pal is.

Have you all sent and received your packages? I think any grace period should be officially over now. I hope you all have had as much fun as Zona and I had in doing this, especially since this is our very first Dye-No-Mite swap.

Tracy spoiled me!

Tracy sent me an awesome package!! It was stuffed full of yarny goodness and Maine lobster-themed goodies! There were EIGHT hand-dyed and hand-spun skeins of yarn, lobster candies devoured by my husband and son (they beat me to them), lobster soap, lobster mug, a hand spindle and roving (yikes! I don't need another addiction :-) ).

thank you Tracy! you are the best. Jana

The first of two...

packages was sent today. It was luscious yarn dyed by someone else plus some goodies. I'm still really not happy with anything I've dyed, but I'm giving it one more go and will pick something to send out in a second package this weekend. (Sorry for doing this right on -- and just after -- the deadline...)

How Do I Tell if Roving has Felted?

Forgive me, I'm not a spinner and I've dyed some Roving today - I'm pleased with the colours but not sure how I tell if it's felted slightly. Most of the way through the lengths I can see the vertical fibres are vertical but at the ends it's more difficult. It doesn't feel matted and in the washing water it all fluffed out. How would I know if it's fellted then? I want it to be good stuff for my partner!!

I'm so lucky!

Look what came in the mail for me today, all the way from Sweden!

Well, hello! This is the first thing I saw when I started opening the package.



That turned out to be this, a cereal box...



which contained all these goodies.



Theres some lovely, soft Swedish laceweight wool in heathery greens and purples (a combination I love -- does the sofa tell you anything?); some silver heart-shaped tags; wonderful handmade stitch markers I can't wait to start using; yummy Gummi candy; soft gingerbread biscuits to go with my coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon; and a sweet letter, which much to my surprise promises another package soon.

I don't know what I did to deserve all this, but I'm incredibly grateful. Thank you, kind Swedish lady knitter. You made me very happy today.

My swap-ee has only gotten a short note from me in the post so far, but this week I'll be sending out the first of two packages, with the final set to go out midweek next week if all goes well and I haven't created mud instead of pretty dyed yarn.

I've so enjoyed playing with color and yarn... too bad I'm not better at it yet.

My package is in the mail as of this Thursday! I sent something I dyed myself, as well as two other items that were dyed by others. Hope the receiver likes the goodies! Jana

Do you think this is good enough to send???

This is my first attempt at handpainted yarn and I'm unsure about it. Would you be happy to receive this in your Dye-No-Mite package or should I keep it for myself and do some more?

Nicola.

Thanks Pippins!

I got a lovely package from my pal last week, but I've been terrible and lazy so I'm posting it late. Sorry! So, to make up for it, I'm posting it here and on my blog.

I couldn't get the damn cats out of the picture. They insisted on a thorough inspection. My pal "Pippins" hand-dyed the Henry's Attic yarn for me and sent me some yummy dark chocolate. I think I almost ate the entire box of Lindt truffles within hours of receiving this lovely package. I'm saving the rest of the dark chocolate for later. Good thing there's no competition for dark chocolate in my house.

Well, this started out as a comment....

I started this as a comment to Jana's post and question about dyeing turquoise and color bleeding, but my response got wordy and loooong, so not it's a post! Anyways....

Some colors may take 2 dye jobs to get just the right color, especially with very deep saturated colors and take a lot of patience. I'm going to assume that you're using the premixed turquoise color. I haven't used it, but heard that it is a slightly more challenging color. You can try a few things, which I've detailed below. It sounds like you've dyed a bit already before, but I'm not sure what your primary/common methods are. So to be on the safe side (and for anyone who hasn't done much dyeing), I'm going to include all the very basic instructions and explanations here:

1. You may be putting in too much dye power per wool ratio. (?) It's also best to dissolve yor dyes in hot water. Some reds and blues get gelatinous and end up being too thick. When it gets thick like that, you may end up with gloopy bits to your yarn that ends up being excess dyes that bleed out. ProChem suggests adding Urea as an anti-coagulant. Urea is generally used as a wetting agent. I use it for reactive dyes. Urea helps your fiber stay wetter and helps you get brighter colors. Not everyone has urea, or want to smell it, so I'd try the other alternatives if you don't have urea.
   
2. Mix your own turquoise with yellow and blue. If you have green on hand, it might be easier to use that as a base, and then just add blue and/or yellow to get the desired shade. To test the color, just dab your stir stick on a paper towel.
3. Try submitting your yarn to a 2nd dye job or overdye it.
   
4. Apply a dye fixative to your yarns after you dye. I like and use this one for my cellulose fibers. Just make sure you rinse your yarn before soaking it in the fixative.
   
5. If you do the saran wrap painting and seaming method, try dyeing/painting on the stove. If you've already tried the stovetop method, try it with salt. and add some non-iodized salt to your dye bath.
   
   • Put your yarn in a dye pot with water on the stove (enough to cover yarn but not too much). I don't always presoak, because I like that not all the dyes take up at the same rate. If you want a more even color, then presoak the yarn.
   • Mix in some vinegar or citric acid and salt. I actually prefer citric acid because you can get a deeper color with it than vinegar, and of course, there's no odor. You want your water hot, but a below boiling.
     
   • Mix your color in a cup with warm water and a little bit of acid. Adding acid to both your water bath and the dye mix helps control the dye and will prevent/limit the dispersion in the water. Doing this will allow you to paint many colors at the same time without the hassle and mess of the saran wrap method (now, if you want a lot of control, like getting a different color every stitch, then I'd use the saran wrap method).
   • Using a bent spoon, squirt bottle, paintbrush, or whatever you use to apply the dye, put the dye the spots where you want the color to be. Don't touch it or mess with it too much (or the dye may go where you don't want it to go) and wait until your water turns clear. Remember not to let your water boil.

Good luck! I hope at least one of these helps. If you've already tried all of these already, sorry, I have no other suggestions.

question about unwanted discharge

Hi all, I have a question about how to get some troublesome colors to fully-set so there is zero discharge during a soak/wash. I love to use fully saturated colors and I've noticed that for some of my colors, like turquoise, no matter how much acidity I use, and no matter how long I do a "steam set", there is always a little bleed-out during a wash.

Is this common and expected with bold colors? Or should I stop using this troublesome dye (I really like the color)?

thanks! Jana

Peacock silk bell

I just finished painting a 1 oz silk bell for my swap partner, and I'm doing some cashmere roving this afternoon. I already sent her one package of yarn with commerical stuff as well as mine, but this package is all by me :-)

Spinning Tales

Alright, I've spun up the roving snafoo. I've blogged it and added other photos in a post on my regular blog. I will definitely have to dye some new roving for my secret pal. Let's just hope that I end up with roving that is giftable this time!

dyeing to write

I finally dyed the yarn for me secret partner. It was very exciting. The first time I tried to make something "self - striping"
I can't wait to send it when it is dry. Will also sent commercially dyed yarn in case.

too many ideas

Maybe it's just that I'm still keyed up from the marathon tax session that culminated in my eFiling at 12:32 a.m. (just a half-hour past the deadline; I don't think they'll care). Or maybe it's that spring has finally reached this place and the snow is going fast.

Either way, I've got a million ideas of possible dyeing projects all competing in my head. So, I'm wondering what other people have decided to do?

Will you be dying yarn or roving? Overdyeing fabric? Dyeing paper or other stuff? Do you plan to make something of the yarn (or whatever) after you dye it -- or will you send it as grist for your pal's creativity? And will you be sending only stuff you dyed yourself -- or as a failsafe sending a few boughten dyed goodies?

I need to put down this cup of coffee now and get over the jitters. Perfect time for some meditative knitting.

Dyeing Books

Dyeing to Knit by Elaine Eskesen. The book is fairly well-put together and features some very nice pictures. I can't honestly say that I read the book from cover to cover, let alone the majority of it. I only read parts that caught my eye, such as the section on overdyeing and experimental dyeing on pages 46-47. The "Design Phase" section of the book is also very inspiring. She talks about taking colors from art and nature into your handpainted yarns. This is illustrated by a snapshot of a garden and a swatch of yarn she painted based on the colorways of the snapshot (p. 67)

The Fabric & Yarn Dyer's Handbook by Tracy Kendall. I love this book -- it is well organized and has fantasitic inspirational photos. I wouldn't say that it's wholly comprehensive, but the book covers a little of everything to do with dyeing. The first part of the book discusses different techniques for dyeing fabric and yarn, stenciling, marbeling, monoprinting, color stripping, wax printing, etc. The latter part of the book features various dye and painting recipes for yarn and fabric, including some natural dye methods. Although I know I'm not going to be dyeing most of the things in the book, I just love the photos of the projects she featured. The recipe section also has color coded tabs indicating which fibers would be appropriate for the recipe, and there are also key symbols for each recipe indicating processing time, precautions for the different levels toxicity for all the various dye methods, how the fabric is processed (i.e. heat, steam). I have seen this at many Half Price Books stores before. I think I bought mine off of Half.com.

Dye Powders. Wovengold - to answer your question: Yes, I have used ProChem's WashFast Acid dyes. They work wonderfully and give you nice rich colors.

I use the Jacquard dyes as well. I can't say which one I prefer. I've never done a side by side comparison of the WashFast and Jacquard dyes before. I use them both and I do mix them with one another. I mainly use and purchase primary and/or CYMK colors and then mix them to get the color I want. (Well.. except I got tired of mixing for brown, so I broke down and bought an 8oz jar of ProChem's brown.)

If you are interested in trying WashFast dyes, ProChem does offer a variety of starter kits (scroll down) in many color combinations. After we decided to move beyond KoolAid, Zona and I took a dye class where we were introduced to the WashFast dyes via a starter kit. If your LYS doesn't sell WashFast, you can order directly from the company through their website. I order my Jacquard Acid dyes and my fiber reactive dyes from Dharma Trading.

Instruction Sheets
From Dharma on Acid dyeing: here
From Dharma on vat dyeing with Reactive dyes: here
From ProChem on handpainting with Acid dyes: here
From ProChem on 2 color gradation Reactive dyeing: here
ProChem's instruction index page: here

Dyeing to Knit

You know I've seen that book but I've never read it. If you liked it, maybe I should give it a try!

I've been dyeing wool with Jacquard acid dyes. I don't know if they are recommended in the book or not, but for the most part I've been happy with Jacquard. Some of the colors are disappointing, most are great. It's totally trial and error. Before I order and try out the dye color I have no idea if it is a "winner" or not.

Dyeing to Knit

Has anybody else here read/used Dyeing to Knit by Elaine Eskesen? I love it, not only the parts about dyeing procedures (where I learned a lot), but also seeing the author's dyed yarn choices turned into swatches by different knitters.

This is the first crafty "how to" book I've ever read cover to cover. It might be because I was stuck in a waiting room for a long time yesterday, but I think I would have read it all the way thru even if it had just been on my bedside table.

Also wondering if anybody has used the WashFast acid dyes Eskesen recommends? If so, what do you think?

Inspiration abound

Even if you're not a spinner, this is a spectacular photo group to browse for inspiration and ideas. I'm always astonished at the color combos that people come up with and what can be done with an already beautiful yarn made into something gorgious.

Happy Wednesday!

~Zona

I suck at dyeing roving

I'm pretty good and intuitive with color. I can pretty much mix any color with the primaries: red, blue, yellow and/or the light palette: cyan, magenta, yellow. Zona can probably attest to that, since she has been over to my house for a few of our "Wine, Dye & Knit" parties. I can even get color changes when dyeing cellulose fibers. I still will not say I'm expert, not until I learn and master natural dyes (probably never get to it!), but I will say that I don't do a shabby job. Alas, not so with roving.

I found out that I suck at dyeing roving. I've dyed roving one other time. It was a small amount for needle felting, so I didn't care really how it turned out, but it was what I wanted, so I ended up being over-confident when I dyed 2 days ago. I needed to dye a commissioned project and wanted to dye for both my SP10 and Dye-No-Mite pals. My yarns turned out great. I then decided to dye some roving, some for one of the pals, and some for myself (My friend is letting me borrow her wheel for 2-3 months!). According to the roving dye master Zona, roving is easy peasy and sucks up dye like nothing else. Not for me. It took forever. It didn't help that I was using reds, oranges, and fuschias. I used those same colors for my yarns and the yarns turned ou great. I could not get color saturation with the roving though, despite having tossed in some synthrapol to help with the lanolin. In the end, I decided not to aim for the rich color I envisioned, for fear of felting the roving, which it kinda did and I ended up with salmon-ish and pink-orangish colors.

I wanted more deep bright colors like these:

and then add some hints of cool tones and rusty tones.

Maybe I'll try again in a couple of weeks. I'm planning to dye cellulose fibers next.

Just poking my head in...

to say hello. Unfortuately, I'm blogless (where's the time?) so hope to be able to come here to hear a bit about what people are thinking/doing. Haven't decided entirely myself, yet, but have been in contact with my pal (and have been contacted). Gotta get going!