To dye for!

[silverstah.livejournal.com]

I bought one of these - yes, that's a spinning wheel - a la Sleeping Beauty. Or Rumpelstiltskin. Or... whatever. And, yes, it's made of PVC piping. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does a darn good job at spinning. :)

This came in the mail on Thursday, and I've been playing with it pretty much non-stop. I've gotten to the point where I don't suck, which makes me happy. ;)

A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of undyed roving (the fluffy stuff you spin), and I spent all weekend making it pretty with food coloring.

My hands are dyed pink, my fingernails are an icky shade of purple, but I have a big ole' pile of Brown Sheep mill end roving in amazing, bright colors ready to spin.



This is my first time dyeing - so it was a lot of "hmm, let's try this!" and "let's see how THIS works!". *grin* The dyes all acted much differently than I thought they would - but I ended up with some amazing colors, so I'm really not complaining.

For those who are curious, I used Star's method here:

http://keeponknittinginthefreeworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/wiltons-icing-gel-dying-tutorial.html

This is 'Robin' - Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in brown, royal blue and teal. 4.8 oz


'Mossy Morning' - Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in green, royal blue, yellow and teal. 7 oz


'Sherbert' - Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in yellow and pink. 2.6 oz.


'Bengal' - Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in golden yellow and light brown. 3.4 oz.


'Magpie' - Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in teal and royal blue. 5 oz.


I can't think up a cute name for this one. Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in brown, light brown and black. 5 oz.


Hand dyed roving using Wilton's food coloring in green and burgundy. 2 oz. This is my least favorite - this was just me using up the last of the dyes last night. It will probably spin up pretty, I'm just not terribly fond of it right now.


'Dusk' - I didn't snap a photo of the roving before I spun it up last night - but this is hand-spun and hand-dyed using Wilton's black, teal and purple. 75 yds.