Dyeing for Spring Spindlers Exchange
I just love exchanges and this one was big fun. We exchanged 4 ox of fiber dyed in any light fast way. I, of course, signed up and promptly forgot about the exchange until I was catching up on the digents and someone mentioned it. I had never recieved an exchange partner because the list mom's isp and mine weren't playing nice together.
Anyway, I promptly emailed her and then my package showed up and I felt really bad but eventually it all worked out and I hope my partner liked her package as much as I liked mine and as much as I enjoyed the process of dyeing the fiber.
The only white fiber I had, was a mystery top, so not much choice there :-)
The fun part came in trying to figure out how to lay out the fiber
for dying. I choose to just circle it up thinking I would end up with fiber that would be dyed in short pieces three different colors, if I poured the dye across the circle. I choose to use easter egg dye since I had stocked up after the holiday. I actually prepared 5 colors, using 5 tablets each color, but for some reason the other two looked very weak and I decided to just use the blue, green and yellow. An easy glug of vinegar to each cup, add more water and pour. I like the way the two colors come together in the middle making it appear that 
the blue and yellow meet in the middle to create the green.
All wrapped up and ready for a couple minutes in the microwave.
What I love most about dying with easter egg dyes is the ease of preparation. A tablet or five, a bit of hot water until they desolve, a glug or two (pour carefully, this is science experiment time) of vinegar from my cabinet, add some more water, pour, wrap, nuke, wait overnight (tell husband not to eat what is in the microwave), rinse, allow to dry, and enjoy. How much of any given item is really irrelevant to me. I enjoy the surprise. This was the largest amount of continuous wool, I have ever dyed this way, more water would have given better dye coverage but I thought to leave the white areas for contrast and voila.....
Rinsed, dryed and ready to spin.
Anyway, I promptly emailed her and then my package showed up and I felt really bad but eventually it all worked out and I hope my partner liked her package as much as I liked mine and as much as I enjoyed the process of dyeing the fiber.
The only white fiber I had, was a mystery top, so not much choice there :-)
The fun part came in trying to figure out how to lay out the fiber
for dying. I choose to just circle it up thinking I would end up with fiber that would be dyed in short pieces three different colors, if I poured the dye across the circle. I choose to use easter egg dye since I had stocked up after the holiday. I actually prepared 5 colors, using 5 tablets each color, but for some reason the other two looked very weak and I decided to just use the blue, green and yellow. An easy glug of vinegar to each cup, add more water and pour. I like the way the two colors come together in the middle making it appear that 
the blue and yellow meet in the middle to create the green.All wrapped up and ready for a couple minutes in the microwave.
What I love most about dying with easter egg dyes is the ease of preparation. A tablet or five, a bit of hot water until they desolve, a glug or two (pour carefully, this is science experiment time) of vinegar from my cabinet, add some more water, pour, wrap, nuke, wait overnight (tell husband not to eat what is in the microwave), rinse, allow to dry, and enjoy. How much of any given item is really irrelevant to me. I enjoy the surprise. This was the largest amount of continuous wool, I have ever dyed this way, more water would have given better dye coverage but I thought to leave the white areas for contrast and voila.....
Rinsed, dryed and ready to spin.
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