Sunday, March 31, 2013

Dyed rovings for the spinning workshop

Last Saturday, I taught two Introduction to Spinning with a Drop Spindle workshops. From 8:30am - 12:30pm and again from 1pm - 4pm. It was intense and fun. Each of the students, and there were eight in each class, were able to spin a continuous thread, and most of them made a small skein of two-ply yarn by the end of the workshop.

As a a treat I sent them home with 25g of white BLF and 25g of dyed BFL rovings. Rovings that I dyed myself.  Here's the photo essay of that process:


I soaked the rovings overnight and then applied the dye in a rainbow-ish pattern. After they dyeing, I rolled them in cellophane and let them sit for a few days. Overnight is probably enough, but things got busy with work so the steaming part was on hold.


I steamed them for a total of 45 minutes. Flipping them every ten minutes. After four flips, I turned the heat off and let them cool down in the steamer. About three hours after that, I unrolled them and let them cool even further.

Here's what they looked like after I rinsed all the dye out of them.


And here they are, all dry and ready to be rolled into nests to be tucked into their bags.


I wish I had made one of these for me, so I could see what the spun yarn looked like. Next time. . . . . better planning.

1 comment:

  1. I was in the afternoon class. It was intense and fun for me too! Thank you for specially preparing this fibre for our class.

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