Friday, October 2, 2009

Dyeing Again and Greenman

Today was spent mostly dyeing up batches of fleece for projects and to sell at the festival next weekend. I did about 9 or so big batches using my two 6 qt pans and my 12 qt pot. I started in at 8AM and quit finally around 2:30. My kitchen looks like a rainbow herd of sheep exploded. I have 2 screens set up to dry the fleece on with a fan blowing on them and had another batch outside drying too. I finally got some good deep blues and purples, along with deep greens. These are always the hardest colors to get right and I had to double dye these to get them dark enough. I started with dark gray fleeces--Navajo-Churro, Jacob, and Shetland but still had to dye them twice to get them as dark as I needed. I also took time to wash a Lincoln fleece I must have missed in previous fleece washings, and I still have another one yet to do. These are the last of the Lincoln's I got from my friend Barb in Iowa.

This is the outside batch



After the sheep dyeing and lunch I debated on starting in on the carding I still have to do to have some bags of roving for both spinning and fleece hooking but I was too wiped out physically--maybe tomorrow on the carding. I did re-frame Greenman and had started doing some work on him yesterday and decided to work on him again to day. I'm almost through with the upper left side except for one leaf. I might even get him mostly done before the show at this rate. I have promised myself that I will get him done before the end of the year. I'm still blanking out on what to do with the border. I alternate between Celtic knots, or acorns and oak leaves, and also the different names of the Greenman.


6 comments:

Momz Wool Rug Hooking Studio said...

Nice Work did you design that pattern yourself? The detail is incredible

Fanxstitch said...

Thank you. Yes, it's all my work. I've been doing greenmen in paintings and crafts since the early 90's. This the first rug hooked one.

Unknown said...

OH FanXstitch, I love your colors and dyeing skills with roving. It never occurred to me about double dyeing. I, too, like to dye natural gray wool. Will you share with me, about your dyeing process? Do you lightly wrap fleece in netting to wash it? I have not dyed fleece since college but have experimented with dyeing fleece without pre-washing resulting in interesting wool.

Now, that the holidays are over, I am ready to focus on my work verses gifts. www.seegart.wordpress.com

Unknown said...

OH FanXstitch, I love your colors and dyeing skills with roving. It never occurred to me about double dyeing. I, too, like to dye natural gray wool. Will you share with me, about your dyeing process? Do you lightly wrap fleece in netting to wash it? I have not dyed fleece since college but have experimented with dyeing fleece without pre-washing resulting in interesting wool.

Now, that the holidays are over, I am ready to focus on my work verses gifts. www.seegart.wordpress.com

Unknown said...

OH FanXstitch, I love your colors and dyeing skills with roving. It never occurred to me about double dyeing. I, too, like to dye natural gray wool. Will you share with me, about your dyeing process? Do you lightly wrap fleece in netting to wash it? I have not dyed fleece since college but have experimented with dyeing fleece without pre-washing resulting in interesting wool.

Now, that the holidays are over, I am ready to focus on my work verses gifts. www.seegart.wordpress.com

Unknown said...

OH FanXstitch, I love your colors and dyeing skills with roving. It never occurred to me about double dyeing. I, too, like to dye natural gray wool. Will you share with me, about your dyeing process? Do you lightly wrap fleece in netting to wash it? I have not dyed fleece since college but have experimented with dyeing fleece without pre-washing resulting in interesting wool.

Now, that the holidays are over, I am ready to focus on my work verses gifts. www.seegart.wordpress.com