I took a hand-dyeing workshop last month at Mind's Eye Yarns in Cambridge. I've always been curious about the process of acid dyeing yarns and rovings. Lucy, the owner, was very helpful and knowledgable. Here are a couple of skeins that I dyed that day. They're a washable merino/tencel blend sock yarn. I can't wait to see how they knit up. Socks they will be. Now to pick a pattern. Which one? I'm very curious to see how the blue and white skein knits up. I don't think it'll be stripy, but I hope it's not going to pool badly.
Here are the mini skeins of fiber that Lucy provided for us to practice with during the workshop. I think these are (left to right) merino/alpaca blend, mohair boucle, merino and the mohair bouche again. Don't quote me on that. I'm not a huge fan of the mohair to knit with, but the texture of it is interesting. I find that it doesn't take a lot of dye to paint mohair. I know that there was one skein that I had to rescue from a dripping puddle of dye before I wrapped it up to heat set.
I dyed some tussah silk roving from Artfibers in San Francisco with orchid acid dye, a vibrant pink color. I used the immersion method since there was 8 oz of it. It was getting a little unruly to try to hand-paint it. I think I like the effect. The other is a hand-painted cashmere/merino roving that I purchased during my travels.
I guess the next step would be to figure out how to spin this roving. I'm headed to the Gore Place in Waltham this weekend to attend their 21st Annual Sheepshearing Festival. I heard that there will be some demonstrations happening. Maybe I can pick up some tips on spinning.
