I dyed!

Dyeing, that's another thing that I didn't see myself doing until, oh, maybe when we move to a larger place. But I thought it would be good to learn the process, to get some hands-on experience, to gain understanding of another aspect of the fiber art. So when I saw that John was teaching a class, I signed up.

The method that John taught is super easy and quick to do. It is less precise but it produces the kind of result that I am looking for. I am quite surprised and very happy. I won't go into the instructions since John is still teaching these classes. I don't want to be the one to put up his class details on the internet. That wouldn't be nice to him. But I am sure that some of you will know exactly the process once you see the photos.

This is Sandy. One of the partners of "the place". I don't want to come right out and tell you where it is because I am still weary of certain someone that might nab the info and use it for whatever.

Here's the sample that John created to show the process to the class. I am sure that some of you can figure out what that process is. I love it.

My partner in crime. Sorry, I didn't try to remember names. *blush*

John and Jill standing next to each other, and a very nice lady. Again, sorry, I didn't try to remember names.

Class in action.

Testing the PH level in the water.

This nice lady took a spinning class right after the dye class. I think she was hooked. :-)

This is my creation. About 3 oz. of superwash merino. It's nice, but not the colors that I wanted. I wanted the dominant color to be dark burgundy, with a little bit of orange yellow and navy blue mixed in. Darker colors. But, I decided to share my dye pan with another, and this is the result we agreed on. I might tweak it a little more later or I might spin it and ply the singles with something different.

The dye also sets really fast with superwash fiber. John warned me about this. I cut down the amount of the fiber I wanted to dye from 6 oz to 3 oz so there's less for the dye to work through. But then I agreed to share my pan and more fiber was added, making it difficut to get an even result. But I think I like the look.

I like dyeing un-spun fiber. I can have variety of ways to change the look of the final product.

Ummm... I think I am going to be dyeing more soon. LOL