Ready to Dye again

Here is the elm bark ready to take on wool.

8 hanks are going in this time.  Same 4, plus I will be adding iron to the dye after all 8 soak, then 4 go back in.

 The will be doing the same process for the yellow onion skins.

Second Batch

Almost ready to start the next batch, with Elm bark.  Soaked for two weeks.  I think I would be better soaking for one week, or add an anti-baterial into the water.

The onion soaked for a weak.  Two great sources of onion skins are the Farmer's Market and the Grocery Store.  I just wish the Farmer's Market had red onions.  The top container is my Alum soak.

Results from the first dyeing project

Here are all eight hanks of yarn:

The left is the Eucalyptus Bark, and the right is Pine Cone.  From left to right in each picture, 1. Unprocessed, 2. Scoured only, 3. Alum only, 4. Scoured and Alum.

A friend asked about color fading, so each hank has been washed in soak.  There is a slight variation between each, but it is very slight color differences.

In the Process

Here is what is being worked on next.

The top is a container of used loose tea.  It will be a while before that one starts.

The bottom is elm bark.  It has been soak for a week so far.

This is a container of yellow onion skins.  Last time I was at the store, I had one onion, plus lots of loose skins.  I gathered up loose skins from Slow Cook Friday, so I have a good start.

Drying

Here is my hanks getting dried.




and closer views:

But which is which?

Opened the dye pots

I opened each of the dye pots. Here is what each looked like when I opened them.

The Pine Cones:



Yes that is a little mold at the top. The second is the Eucalyptus:



It is dark, but it is deceiving.

What is next?

What do I want to try next? I figured out that I have elm trees on my property. You can dye with both elm bark and leaves. I already have a broken branch, I was able to trim the bark easily.

Hank Tags

For those that wondered how I tagged all of my hanks to keep them separated, I found a nice solution. The USPS (US Postal Service) makes a nice plastic paper envelope for Priority Mailing. It also makes nice tags. I cut small tags, write on them (once in pen, and a second in Sharpie), then tie a piece of cotton string that I used to tie hank together.

Dye Pots 2

Here are my two dye pots after 3 weeks of sitting outside.

9 hanks of wool

These are my 9 hanks of super wash Merino.

Here is the list of all nine

2 - Scoured

2 - Alum

2 - Neither

1 - Undyed





Scoured means the hanks were washed in a wool soap to clean any dirt or chemicals from the wool. Alum, (Aluminum Sulfate), is used to help Brighten the color and allows the color to not fade from natural light and washing. I want to know how each of these affect the color, so each of the three goes and soaks in the dye.

New Dye Pots

Started two dye pots (containers) today. The top one is pine cones from the Lee Canyon side of Mount Charleston. The bottom one is Eucalyptus Bark. One of the staff from my local knit shop, Wooly Wonders, brought me a bag off bark from some of her plants.

The eucalyptus bark was broken into smaller pieces that fit into into the container. The pine cones were put into the container moved around to get them all in. Both containers were then filled with water.

Dying Supplies

I received my box of dyeing material from Botanical Colors.

Reading the book, I just found out many materials can be cold dyed.

After talking to Kathy, she recommended the book "Wild Color" by Jenny Dean.

Great book!

Misc and Dying

I took a break from working on my Hexi Puffs because I found WestKnits.

Labor Day Weekend, I attended the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat. The one class I did take was "Boys, Bugs and Blenders". It was a dyeing class where we learned the process of Natural Dyeing. The class was taught by Kathy Hattori from Botanical Colors. I have dyed wool before, but this was much more detailed. Now I do want to try dyeing at home.

Fiber for HP13

Here are my skeins for the thirteenth set of Hexi-puffs.  These are small samplers that I spun on my small Turkish Spindle.

HP 12

These are the twelth set of my Hexi-Puffs.  These are from Filzwoole Ombre Kamm (Skacel). 

I tried a second picture is the now later sunlight.

I had help taking pictures

HP 11

These are the eleventh set of my Hexi-Puffs.  These are Decadent Chocolate Trio from Fiber Fancy. 

HP 10

These are the tenth set of my Hexi-Puffs.  These are Blues from Filzwoole Ombre Kamm (Skacel).  I was a little worried about the last two puffs.  I had only a few yards left of yarn.

Build Update 2

Here is my update as of Saturday.  This is still just one of each, as there are 5 to 7 more of each.  Almost done with another set.

HP 09

These are the ninth set of my Hexi-Puffs.  These are Firestorm from Mountain Colors.  This adds my Hexi count to 62.