Finally I’m ready to spin, and don't you just love my nifty plastic bag apron? I find that silk fibres stick to my regular cotton spinning apron so a clear plastic bag does the trick!
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Dyeing Louet Fibre with Gaywool Dye ~ Part 2
Finally the continuation of Dyeing Louet Silk Top with Gaywool dye story. I was trying to get enough silk spun for the final photo and the sunny days kept pulling me outside, hence the lengthy delay!
After waiting for 24 hours to allow the dyes to penetrate the silk I unwrapped the plastic wrap to finally get to see the result of my dye sprinkling. I removed it from the plastic wrap and coiled into a bowl for rinsing.
The first rinse had a bit of extra dye, but surprisingly not that much. Most of the very liberally sprinkled dye has done it’s job and coloured the silk beautifully.
I must admit that I loved the colour of the water as I poured it off!
After I rinsed the silk out completely I laid it on a towel covered drying rack in the shade to dry which took about 6 hours in our marine climate.
I’m really impressed with the colours now that it’s dry enough to spin.
I had planned to have some undyed sections of silk, but I see that I should have opened up the silk roving just a bit more when I was applying the dye. The dye took beautifully on one side but didn't seep all the way to the center of the roving.
I pull off a section of roving about 18 inches long and gently tug the sections between my fingers all along the length. This opens up the fibre enough to make the silk fibres moved easily as I spin.
I’m really pleased with the colours as I’m filling the bobbin ~ a lovely marled pastel pink and coral is what I’m seeing right now, but I’m sure the effect will change when I ply it. I’m aiming for a 20/2 grist for weaving, so this is quite a fine yarn.
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6 comments:
The colors are lovely! I can't wait to see what it grows up to be!
so you are spinning straight from the sliver and not from the fold?
Thanks for the tip about the plastic "apron"....I've been finding silk filament everywhere since spinning silk on my jeans last week.
Love those colors!
Hi Valerie,
Yes, I am spinning directly from a length of sliver that I've split into 3 or 4 long sections, like pencil roving. I want to get a nice long colour change and if I spun from the fold it would be a much shorter repeat.
When spinning silk I lay an old silk scarf across my legs. Silk won't catch on silk - much quieter than using plastic.
Hi Lynne,
Using a silk scarf is brilliant! I have to admit that the plastic keeps sliding around and it is indeed noisy and a wee bit hot, so I'm going to be hunting through my scarves to find a silk one. Thanks so much for the tip.
I really like Gaywooll dyes. I think they cost more but it's nice to have the crystals which don't degrade like dye stock does. Those are pretty colors. I think I need to restock!
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