A Saturday to Dye For
It seems like it's taken me forever to find the time to get to this computer and blog! Just a furiously busy week and another one ahead! However, last Saturday DH took some of the kids to the Exhibition and Fair so I took a "holiday" too and spent it doing something I love - playing with color and yarn! You didn't think I could resist changing that pure angelic white mohair did you? LOL!!
I trolled my stash and pulled out some Elsebeth Savold Silky Wool skeins in an annoying light brown, some white Wool in the Woods boucle Mohair-Wool-Silk blend and some Kathmandu Merino-silk-cashmere in balls.
Did the usual - soaked them well...
Silky Wool Kathmandu (half of the 19 balls)
The Kathmandu and the Wool in the Woods boucle I dyed with Koolade, since I had such a large stash of it. I did the balls in small batches so there was lots of room for the liquid to circulate. I was quite pleased with the resulting color - not too coral but not too red either.
The Wool in the Woods boucle I wanted to do something a bit different. I only had a few packages of koolade left in blue and it's a blue I really like. I wanted to pair it up with a soft green, sort of like bluebells or lupines. It meant I dyed each end and I was so pleased! I think I'm finally getting the hang of how much/how little dye to use.
The Silky Wool I used the new commercial dyes I bought from theWoolery. They are very fine powder and a little goes a looooong way! The turquoise is an amazing rich hue! I wanted to make a blues blend for the Silky Wool using 3 different shades of blue but once I got started and realized the skeins were more 'brown' than I thought so I ended up only using 2 shades as the 3rd was too light a blue to show up well. They were carefully layered in a tray to go into the oven
I Dyed the Mohair-Silk skeins with pink and lilac along the lines of Hyacinths using commercial dye. They were carefully laid in containers to go into the oven too.
Since I had lots of turquoise dye left from the Silky Wool, and pink & lilac left from the mohair-silk, one of the large skeins of Mohair laceweight because turquoise with touches of green and misty purple. The other I dyed a rich red and green to imitate Red Roses - my favorites!
Since I was short one tray I used a Look! oven bag for the last skein of mohair. I was so very careful working with the mohair since it "loves itself" I didn't want to make it felt together. I covered each tray with tin foil and put them in a 250 F oven for 2 hours, then let them cool down before rinsing. The outside on the rack to dry in the fresh summer air!
From left to right: Mohair-Silk in Hyacinth, Mohair Laceweight in turquoise, Kathmandu in coral-red, Mohair laceweight in Red Roses and Silky-Wool in Blues.
Wool in the Woods Mohair-Merino-Silk boucle
Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. The yarn is not quite as brilliant as the first pic but brighter than the second!
Mohair-Silk : second pic is closer to the real colors.
Laceweight Mohair in a turquoise-misty purple-dark green palette.
Laceweight Mohair in Red Roses - an epic struggle to photograph. The red is not quite this neon and the green is a rich dark evergreen (not black).
Believe it or not I am seriously considering listing the mohair on eBay. After working with it to dye it I am reminded of why I didn't have pure mohair in my stash... too fuzzy, too hairy! Just go to the Yarn listings on eBay and look in Mohair....
I trolled my stash and pulled out some Elsebeth Savold Silky Wool skeins in an annoying light brown, some white Wool in the Woods boucle Mohair-Wool-Silk blend and some Kathmandu Merino-silk-cashmere in balls.
Did the usual - soaked them well...
Silky Wool Kathmandu (half of the 19 balls)
The Kathmandu and the Wool in the Woods boucle I dyed with Koolade, since I had such a large stash of it. I did the balls in small batches so there was lots of room for the liquid to circulate. I was quite pleased with the resulting color - not too coral but not too red either.
The Wool in the Woods boucle I wanted to do something a bit different. I only had a few packages of koolade left in blue and it's a blue I really like. I wanted to pair it up with a soft green, sort of like bluebells or lupines. It meant I dyed each end and I was so pleased! I think I'm finally getting the hang of how much/how little dye to use.
The Silky Wool I used the new commercial dyes I bought from theWoolery. They are very fine powder and a little goes a looooong way! The turquoise is an amazing rich hue! I wanted to make a blues blend for the Silky Wool using 3 different shades of blue but once I got started and realized the skeins were more 'brown' than I thought so I ended up only using 2 shades as the 3rd was too light a blue to show up well. They were carefully layered in a tray to go into the oven
I Dyed the Mohair-Silk skeins with pink and lilac along the lines of Hyacinths using commercial dye. They were carefully laid in containers to go into the oven too.
Since I had lots of turquoise dye left from the Silky Wool, and pink & lilac left from the mohair-silk, one of the large skeins of Mohair laceweight because turquoise with touches of green and misty purple. The other I dyed a rich red and green to imitate Red Roses - my favorites!
Since I was short one tray I used a Look! oven bag for the last skein of mohair. I was so very careful working with the mohair since it "loves itself" I didn't want to make it felt together. I covered each tray with tin foil and put them in a 250 F oven for 2 hours, then let them cool down before rinsing. The outside on the rack to dry in the fresh summer air!
From left to right: Mohair-Silk in Hyacinth, Mohair Laceweight in turquoise, Kathmandu in coral-red, Mohair laceweight in Red Roses and Silky-Wool in Blues.
Wool in the Woods Mohair-Merino-Silk boucle
Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. The yarn is not quite as brilliant as the first pic but brighter than the second!
Mohair-Silk : second pic is closer to the real colors.
Laceweight Mohair in a turquoise-misty purple-dark green palette.
Laceweight Mohair in Red Roses - an epic struggle to photograph. The red is not quite this neon and the green is a rich dark evergreen (not black).
Believe it or not I am seriously considering listing the mohair on eBay. After working with it to dye it I am reminded of why I didn't have pure mohair in my stash... too fuzzy, too hairy! Just go to the Yarn listings on eBay and look in Mohair....
What a fun way to spend your free time! The colours came out beautifully!
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Absolutely beautiful dyeing!
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