So, on Saturday, I soaked some wool, alpaca top, bombyx top, tussah and bombyx noil.

I picked a general color scheme, and, of course, none of it turned out the way it was supposed to. However my locks dyed really well, and the alpaca is gorgeous.

They just aren’t quite the color I was going for. Too dark, and not as much yellow as I’d wanted.

The silk…. you know, I’ve heard that silk takes dye really well. I haven’t had that experience. And of the dye that does take, much of it washes out when I’m rinsing out the dyebath.

This is what I got. The silk on the far left is hideous. Strangely, it’s the exact same color as the silk I tried to dye red awhile ago.

But I learned some things when I spun the batt and swatched it. The color of the swatch was stunning last night (tho’ it needs more rust), but this morning in natural light, it’s a bit brighter than I’d like. It looks like a mess in the photo, but in person, it’s nicer.

While I was dyeing, it felt like I was cooking. The dye would start to soak in and I’d see I needed to add a little of this, a little of that. A little more black, some complimentary color to dull it, more red to add color, etc. It was very fun.

I’m running horribly late. I need to take a quick shower and head south to buy more fleece. I’m looking forward to washing locks again. I always enjoy that.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 10:45 am and is filed under dyeing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.