Dye trials take 2

After 5 weeks of waiting the missing dye from my order finally turned up last week. I had a bit of fun playing around with it last week and leart quite a few lessons along the way.

The first trial was a stripy yarn on a 100% merino superwash sock base yarn:

The stripes bled a lot when I put them on so next time I think I need to use some kind of thickener to limit this.

Next some roving to spin and ply with the turquoise and green from my first attempt at dyeing.

I was really worried that I had felted this by being too rough putting the dye on, it came out ok after washing with a wool wash with lanolin but I will be more gentle next time, especially with rovings.

The final trial was a go at over dying. I ordered some blue-grey yarn a few weeks back but when it turned up it was really just grey, kind of a school uniform grey so I thought some overfying would improve it.

I went for a mix of black, purples, red, blue and grey. Unfortunately I forgot to put the vinegar in before steaming, I realised as it was cooling- doh!. A spray of vinegar and a second steaming fixed the colour.

The first round of steaming mixed the dye together, making it a more uniform purple rather than the stripey effect I was aiming for. The colour really doesn't show up well in the photo, its a very very dark purple.So, three things to remember next time round:

• Stripes need a thickener to avoid bleeding.
• Be gentle with applying dye, especially with rovings.
• Acid reactive dyes work best when acid is applied!