Saturday, May 22, 2010

Dyeing With Greener Shades Dyes

Yay! I finally get to show you the dyeing that I did last week with my Greener Shades Dyes. I purchased the Greener Shades starter kit to try out.
Here is the corriedale that I ordered online. 3 whole pounds. I divided it up into 12 four ounce balls.

Then it was time to dye. This ball I kettle dyed on May 5th. But I wasn't too pleased with how it turned out so a few days later I decided to try some hand painting with my other roving.

Here is my dyeing station, after I have been going at it for quite awhile. I know, it looks pretty messy, but everything was strategically placed and there was a method to my (apparent) madness.

So here is what I did. First I wrapped the whole table in film wrap, mainly just to keep it from getting soaked or stained. Then I laid down a couple old towels and a sheet and my area was ready.

For each batch of hand painted roving that I did, I laid down a sizable piece of film wrap. I spritzed it well with vinegar and then laid on my roving. I then went to the kitchen and mixed, stirred and concocted until I found just the right colors.

At first I was basically winging it, having no clue really if I was doing this right or not. But in the end I was very pleased with the results. As I went along I felt more confident and was getting the feel for it. I can se why they call it "hand painting". It really felt like I was doing a painting. I loved it. I had done a little bit of hand painting before, with my cousin, using the Wilton food dyes. I never posted pics of the process, just the finished roving and yarn.

After being hand painted, the roving was well sprayed with vinegar, wrapped up, and then steamed for 10 minutes. After which I laid it out to cool and then rinsed it and hung it to dry.

Here are all 11 batches, together and then individually. I put the colorway names below the pictures.
Pineapple Mango

Lake Moods

Purple Cow

Red Agate

Ocean Splendor

Pink Sherbet

Lilac Breeze

Deep Blue

Violet Dawn

Ocean Splendor 2
I had a blast dyeing, and am looking forward to doing it again. I think I learned a lot in the process. Most of the roving pictured I will be selling, but I think I will keep the Ocean Splendor 2 and spin it up myself. :)

3 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, these are beautiful ... the colors are majestic! Nice work!

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  2. Thank you so very much! I am glad that you like them =) I just started spinning up Ocean Splendor 2, and I love everything about it! I'll post pics of that at a later date.

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  3. These colors are soooo beautiful, you always do such nice work. Can't wait to see you again!

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