Silk Noil and Carrier Rods - results of dyeing

Here are the results of my dyeing experiments yesterday.

The first thing I suggest is that you split the rods after dyeing, as the ones that I split beforehand became very stringy during the rinsing process.

 

The rods dyed in the Dylon dye were very dark, I made up this dye some months ago and I believe it had become concentrated, but still colours I will use.

The four Landscape dyes at the right of the picture all dyed extremely well, but I think I could have been even more economical with the dye to make lighter colours from the start.

 

The two rods on the left were dyed in the old concentrated Dylon dye, and the noil on the right was put into the saved dye from this process, totally different colour!!  It was difficult to get the noil to submerge and absorb any dye at first, but I persevered and kept pushing it down, reheated the pot in the microwave as before.

 

Although the 'rose' dye looked pretty weak after the second process with the noil, I popped in a little piece of wool roving which has purple Angelina fibres already mixed in  http://www.worldofwool.com  ended up with a beautiful baby pink and nothing happened to the Angelina fibres in the microwave. 

All the other dye pots I have kept as the dyes still look full of pigment, so I will use them again.

I am very pleased with all of these results, even the cocoon dyed well, sorry no photo, it was flat after I strained it so when it was nearly dry I blew gently into the 'worm hole' and it inflated perfectly.

Now what to do with them all........?

A video that changed my spinning style.....

This is how I was using the drive band and the scottish tension - in fact I had it on the bobbin, the whorl AND the Scottish tension on once - impossible.

I found Spindlicity from a link on Abbys Yarns, and on this page there are two videos which have helped me to spin the way I want to now.

http://beebonnet.typepad.com/spindlicity/current-affairs

Just one second in the first video made the penny drop for me about ratios. Reading about ratios did not enthral me and I found it hard to understand, now I know which whorl to use and to put the drive band on my bobbin as well. I had been struggling with the Haldane wheel I have using it as a single drive wheel. I had the double length drive band on the small groove on the whorl and used the Scottish tension. So I was spinning very fast and found it impossible to spin big yarn and pronouced thick and thin yarn.

The second video and the photographed instructions for spindle spinning down fibres, like camel and yak and I suppose my Akita dog. I had had a go at spinning my dog's fibre and the air was blue with me swearing at the wheel. Now I know that it is better to use long draw and because the fibres are so short and have a lot of air between them it is actually better to squash up the fibres and roll them in your hands before you spin.

I spent more than an hour hand carding some of the Cheviot fleece I had washed myself, with a royal blue merino roving, mainly to try and soften the Cheviot a little, and for interest. I made about a dozen large rolags of fibre. When I changed the ratios on my wheel so that I could attempt spinning 'big' again, I used all the rolags in about 15 minutes - I need a drum carder NOW !!

Spin it......or....... Eat it?????

The top picture is banana fibre !!!!! ......Amazing stuff, it is shiny, looks like candyfloss, feels like silk and is so light and fluffy.
It arrived from the States today from blondechicken on Etsy - there is a link in my lists on the left. It smells fantastic as well but that must be the dye and the washing product the seller used.

I plan to card it into a batt for spinning made from the other fibre that arrived with it, second picture, these are locks from Blondechicken's own sheep Shera, but I might wait for a little bit of Angelina fibre to arrive for that added bit of sparkle.

Living in a particularly wild part of the Pyrenees we rather depend on web purchases within France as well as international. Mind you we are not easy to find, this week I have had to meet two delivery trucks in the village because they could not get down our track ( or didn't fancy driving over our little bridge?).

I willl upload a picture of my 'stash' tomorrow. I now have a stash worth photographing, since I have been collecting all these different fibres by stalking the auction sites and other web sites.

My husband is asking me to knit him another hat with some of my yarn....does he realise I have been reading 'Intertwined' by Lexi Boeger???? His hat could be spun with beads, bottle tops, plants, feathers, paper, old Beatles cassettes or anything else I happen to grab. LOL