Wonderwool Wales 2

During this years show I did a number of demonstrations on dyeing with extracts using the "All-in-One" dyeing method.

The first demo on each day was painting tops and hanks and could also be used on warps.  On Saturday I "painted" two 50g bumps of Blue Face Leicester tops and one 100g hank of Blue Faced Leicester lace weight yarn with Lodhra Bark and Kamala.

On Saturday afternoon I used the "All-in-One" method to dye two centre-pull balls with Red Lac and Dhak.  The first one was a two bath dyed ball and the second was an injection ball.

Left: Two Baths  Right: Injection Dyed

Left: Two Baths  Right: Injection Dyed

How the hanks look!

Sunday mornings tops and hank were painted with Cutch and Cutch Waste.

In the afternoon the centre-pull balls were dyed with Chaste Tree and Madder.

Left: Two baths  Right: Injection dyed

Left: Two baths  Right: Injection dyed

The yarn was purchased from Yarnundyed is beautifully soft and has a lovely sheen.  I'm really thrilled with the results.

Centre Pull Ball Dyeing in Two Colours

This is a short presentation showing how to dye centre-pull balls in two colours using natural dye extracts.  I hope it will give you some new ideas to increase your creativity.  Enjoy!

Workshop at the Bowland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers

On May Day I was at the Bowland Guild in Lancashire to tutor a workshop using Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts.  It was a lovely day weather wise and proved to be a lovely day teaching wise, too!


I was amazed at the number of people attending, I usually limit the numbers to 10, but they were prepared to bring more electric hot plates and additional pots, so we had at least 16!  And with the remainder of the guild spinning at the far end of the room, away from our hot plates, the room was packed.  Obviously Health and Safety came into very strict play, to prevent any accidents and everyone was really patient waiting their turn to weight dyes and yarns/fibres.


Here are a selection of pictures that the guild took at one of their meeting the following month which shows what a fabulous range of yarns were produced that day.

Yarns ranged from handspun to commercial, fine to chunky, plain to boucle!


We did centre pull ball dyeing using two colours, painted yarns and fibres and indigo!

There were fibres including tops and home produced alpaca and mohair.

And every colour of the rainbow was produce.

All in a day!

Amazing!

Centre Pull Ball Scarves

If you can remember, I did some indigo dyeing in the summer (when was that!) and at last I've finally found time to photograph my indigo dyed "Centre-Pull Ball" scarves.


I wove them on a rigid heddle (Ashford 30cm Knitters Loom) with 2 "ends" of Blue Faced Leicester chunky wool that was indigo dyed as previously explained and 1 end of indigo dyed curled loop boucle.



The first scarf was woven with the same white BFL chunky yarn as the warp.













The second one was woven with the indigo dyed curled loop boucle.





I'm really pleased with them, I only wish you could feel how soft they are, oh and now I need to weave (or knit) the two "Shibori" hanks I dyed at the same time.

More Indigo!

Here are the images of the centre-pull ball dyeing I did in the same indigo vat.


I already had some centre-pull balls wound tightly and only had to "wet them out". I then put a rod (long paint brush) through the centre and allowed the ball to just sit in the vat.

After about 5 minutes I flipped the ball over and let the other side sit in the vat, as you can see in the image on the left.



Here you can see the distinct areas of colour.













Below is onen of the hanks hanging on the line after washing and rinsing.



I did manage to warp two knitters loom with these yarns before I went to Woolfest, but didn't manage to do much weaving while I was there. I did finish the weaving at home on Sunday, by way of a rest! I will post images of those when I manage to find time to photograph them.