Dyeing experiments and decisions

 

Tobacco Leaf Brown

I have dyed three 2-ounce samples of the Shetland wool that I recently scoured. Tobacco Leaf Brown will be the base of the heathered yarn I hope to make. The bulk of the wool will be dyed this color.

Forest Green and Cayenne Red

Forest Green and Cayenne Red are the auxiliary colors and I will need much less of them.

I used chemical dyes from the Dharma Trading Company, adhering to their recommended percentages of dye to wool: 1.5% to 2.0% the weight of wool for the amount of dye powder. Since I was dyeing only 2 ounces at a time, this meant a scant 3/8 of a teaspoon of dye for each bath (based on 1 tsp. = 1/8 ounce). I really needed 1/3 teaspoon but I don't have such a measure.

Following their recommended procedure, I soaked the wool (with a little no-rinse soap to ensure all--or most--traces of lanolin were gone). Put a stainless pot of water (with plenty of room for the wool) on the stove and turned up the heat. Diluted my dye powder in a little bit of boiling water then added that to the pot, followed by the pre-soaked wool. Brought the temperature up to 200 F (below the boiling point so as not to cause felting), then pushing the fiber to one side of the pot, added 1/8 cup of vinegar and let the whole thing cook for half an hour at around 200 F. It's a bit more vinegar than called for, but no harm. Very gently, I pushed the wool down several times during steeping, being ever so careful not to felt it.

I dyed the brown first and it was late in the afternoon by the time it was done cooking, so I left the wool in the pot overnight while it cooled. The dye was completely exhausted by the following morning (i.e. all the dye had been taken up by the wool). I'm very happy with the color and the dye job. The Cayenne Red was processed the same way, but I removed it from the pot after 5 or 6 hours. Another successful dye. The Forest Green came out with some mottling, an uneven dye distribution. Had this been for some other purpose I might have been displeased with the result, but since I'm making a heathered yarn, the uneven dyeing works to my advantage and I am happy!

Now on to some blending tests. This is unchartered waters for me and I'm going about it quite blindly. But I know what I want so I'm letting that guide me.

My drum carder

I took out the drum carder I bought 9 or 10 years ago and started running the wool onto it. First a good layer of brown then a scattering of red and green, following by more brown and more scatterings.

After the first pass through the carder, I got this batt:

First pass through the carder

Not bad, but the fibers need more carding. I tore up the batt and sent pieces of it through again resulting in batt number two:

Second pass through the carder

I like this quite a bit. Still, I wonder if it needed more carding, so I tore it up and sent it through the carder, making two more small batts.

Third pass through the carder (on right)

It seems to me that the third pass batts are too blended, the red and green disappear into the mix almost completely. Then I thought I'd run one of those back through the carder with the addition of more red and green bits, and that resulted in the fourth pass:

Fourth pass through the carder

OK, not bad. It's certainly carded enough. So I think my choices now are #2 or #4. But I will modify the process slightly by running the brown, alone, through the carder twice before adding the colored bits for passes three and four. Another test to do.

But. . . there is still the question of how I will prepare this for spinning. I can use my hand carders to turn the batts into rolags for modified long-draw spinning, and that will offer an opportunity to add red and green bits as needed, for good effect. On the other hand, if I decide to mount the batts on a distaff and spin from that, then these batts are the finished blend before becoming yarn.

I don't have a distaff yet and will probably wait for the Vermont Sheep & Wool next month to see if there are any available there. Or I could order from Etsy or eBay. Or decide to spin from rolags. There are probably even more choices that I'm not even aware of.

Lots of decisions go into making a yarn!! :)