The treasure of colour/Mein Farbenschatz!

Finally I'm done with the dyeing and rinsing, and most of the yarns and rovings are dry by now - it was quite a bit of work, and now I'm happy being able to sit down in the shadow, enjoying this huge colour treasure, making plans for all new projects I have in mind ...

This is mainly Tussah-silk and bamboo - it's funny how the fibers stick together due to the dyeing process and look dull, like paper - and then again recover and regain their shiny look when being slightly pulled and drafted ...



I love this one! I spun and plied the wool into a soft thick+thin yarn before dyeing, and although it was one of the first tries I had, the autumn colours are just what I was looking for ... I'm only sorry I don't have more of this!



These are some of the cotton threads I dyed for embroidering with - maybe brighter colours would come better for the picture - but believe me, these somewhat faded and blurred colours are just wonderful when you work with them!



Wool-with-silk rovings, providing spinning material for the long winter nights to come ;-) ...



... more spinning material - this is New Zealand-wool (yes, the colours spots are made purposely!):



- and sheep locks, of course! (The colours turned out very bright, but I will soften them down when carding and spinning ...)



And finally, some of the silk yarns - I do look forward to knitting with these!



(German summary: Ich glaube, die Bilder sprechen für sich selbst - Garne, Fäden, Spinnfutter - alles, was mein Herz begehrt - und der Lohn für die Färbemühe!)

First harvest/Die erste Ernte

Look, our first harvest!

These are some of the woolen yarns I dyed with the Ashford dyes - I was surprised that even the mohair wool survived the tough heat in the microwave ...



... some rainbow colours ...



... some more yarns and bright wool rovings for spinning ...



... and when I went out into the garden in the morning, two butterflies had come along to inspect what they must have thought to be flowers!



Our working conditions are hard at the moment - it's so excessively hot even in the shadow - and in the evenings there are so many mosquitos that we just have to quit our work outdoors within minutes! And this afternoon we had a heavy rain with flash and thunder going down on us ...

I do hope that we'll manage to continue with the cotton dyeing tomorrow - that'll be the embroidery threads and some mesh fabric.

(German summary: So, ein paar Bilder der ersten Ernte von unserem Färbevorhaben! Es ist nur so irre heiß, und heute Nachmittag wurden wir von heftigem Regen und Wärmegewittern unterbrochen. Ich hoffe sehr, daß wir morgen die Baumwollfärberei mit den Reaktivfarben schaffen können ...)

It's been a hard day's night .../Uff!

It's been a hard day - real tough, actually.

It's one o'clock in the morning, I'm exhausted - and we only did the wool part and the Ashford dyes today ...

All I can say is that now I'm really impressed by those people who do this kind of dyeing regularly and even sell their wool ... the price isn't exaggerated at all!

Sara 'died' into bed at 10-ish and didn't even want any dinner - I've been doing some more rinsing and tidying up - but the mosquitos almost ate me for supper and I'm happy to crawl into bed now too - hopefully there will be some beautiful results tomorrow!

(German summary: Meine Hochachtung für alle, die das Färben regelmäßig und professionell betreiben ... ich bin fixfoxfertig, und dabei haben wir 'nur' den Woll- und Ashford-anteil bis jetzt gemacht ...!)

D-day for dyeing!/Morgen geht's ans Färben!

Tomorrow is D-day! D for 'dyeing', of course!

Sara is here, and we're busy making preparations for our first dyeing session together. We are both excited and a little nervous, as we have tons of wool and cotton and silk and ramie, as yarn, roving, fabric, threads and locks ...



We'll be dyeing both with Ashford and Procion colours, partly with a microwave - and it is my first experience ever.

Hoping for the weather to be stable - the amounts of colour, vinegar, salt, jars, plastic foil, buckets, beer (oops!) etc being sufficient - our energy and nerves to be on top - we will finally face this challenge!



(German summary: Morgen ist es soweit - nach langem Abwarten und einigen Vorbereitungen werden wir jetzt endlich färben - wir haben Tonnen von Wolle als Garn, Fasern, Fäden und Locken und sind schon etwas nervös, ob wir das alles auch schaffen werden ...)