Monday 13 December 2010

I went with the red...

As you can see from the photo below, I went for the red on my handspun. This was for two reasons- first all the lovely encouragement I had, and second black can be dyed over red if it was a disaster, but not the other way round!
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I mixed some black into the red dye to get a nice dark colour, not an in your face red. It is maybe a little darker than intended, but I am still pleased with it (and have since realised that I obviously like this colour a lot, I have a carpet, sofa cover, curtains and jumper all in a very similar shade!).
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There was no felting during the dyeing, and the colour took nice and evenly (the slightly shiny bits in the photo are just on the ties around the skein). This was a massive relief as I was very nervous about it, and accidentally boiled it during the dye process through not paying enough attention and the difficulties of temperature control on electric hobs- thank Bob for the low felting tendencies of Suffolk fibre!
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I saved the tiny skein in natural colour, a good wash cleared up a bit more of the grey, there may even be an attempt at a colour work Christmas decoration.
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The red has been balled and is already in the process of being knitted up, it will just be a plain ribbed beanie type hat. I had intended to spin a thick yarn to make the spinning and knitting faster, but it seems I struggle with that, it is about DK weight, not the aran/chunky I had pictured!


8 comments:

  1. I love the rich color. You did a great job!

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  2. Nice job dyeing. I think it is the perfect red.

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  3. The color is beautiful. Nice job.

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  4. I don't think it looks dark at all... It's beautiful! Well done.

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  5. Really beautiful, it's the perfect shade of red, very rich looking!

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  6. Lovely color, my favorite actually. Isn't it great when you take a chance on something and get a good result? Happy Fiber Arts Friday to you!

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  7. I love the red! We have opposite issues - I tend to spin in thicker than I want. Just the other day I thought I had a super-thin yarn that would be DK-ish or even sport, and it turned out to be 8WPI. Oh, well, it's all about listening to the fiber, right? :)

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  8. Wow!! That is really cool! I bet your niece will love it. :)

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