Hello how are you all? Grab a cuppa snuggle up, get comfy this is a long one!
It’s been a gloriously sunny weekend here in Portsmouth, we’ve been enjoying the outdoor life immensely. Treacle has spent the weekend demonstrating the art of chilling. She’s a beautiful cat the colours of her coat really struck me in this photo and it made me think………………….I could dye a Treacle colourway.
Being so sunny I decided to do a bit of solar dyeing, out came some merino roving, out came the dyes (I use acid dyes) and I got creating.
Using black, brown, orange and a bit of yellow I sploshed and spread and generally had a great time colouring in my roving. If you’ve never had a go at dyeing, DO IT it’s so much fun!
I wrapped up the colourful sausage in cling film and left it on the deck for a few hours. It got hot, surprisingly hot.
I was so excited to unwrap it and see a Treacle coloured treat……………………Ahhhh not so much, looks like she’s faded in the wash!!!!!!
I don’t think it was the sun’s fault, because I dyed some other stuff (I’ll show you in a minute) I think I didn’t use enough vinegar to set the dye, I was rather overexcited, a dyeing frenzy! Don’t worry I’m not broken hearted, I’m going to give it another go by overdyeing it, but not today, it’s raining!
So anyway, would you like to see my more successful attempts?
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I know gorgeous aren’t they!
Well done sunshine. I’ll be having another go when the temperature rises, I love the thought of just using that big ball of fire in the sky.
This last photo is of some ramie fibre also solar dyed, this time in a bowl of exhausted dye mix. It’s a lovely fibre with a beautiful sheen and good mixed with others as it’s a devil to spin on its own! The colour is a really subtle luminous sea green/blue colour, very pleased with that.
Finally, (and thanks for sticking with me, I’ve got through a cuppa and two biscuits so far. How about you?) A word about plastic and especially cling film. I’m trying to reduce my use of plastic and wonder what other people use to wrap their roving in before setting it. Any ideas or tips would be very welcome. Thank you.
I’m off for another cuppa and a little spin.
See you soon.
Much Love
♥Sue♥
Sue Webb 