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!)

Blending camel and bamboo ...

Did I tell you I ordered and received a drum carder - it's a Louet Junior - recently?



Hand carders are fine for carding and blending small amounts of fiber, but I've realized you really need a drum carder when working with a bit more of material.

Although wool is still my favourite fiber, I wanted to try out other ones as well - especially as wool is quite "hot" working with in the heat of the summer days ...

Today I blended camel with bamboo, which is a great soft and lightweight combination of the matt and short-stapled camel and the shiny, long-stapled bamboo fibers, easy to spin in all thicknesses.



As I've spun my yarn quite thin at a higher ratio, it is rather energized - and so I guess I will make a 2-ply out of the single - or maybe ply it with an old, slightly golden thread I found in a thrift store ... we'll see.

(German summary: Ich habe mir endlich eine Trommelkarde gekauft - und bin gerade dabei, eine Mischung aus Kamel- und Bambusfasern zu verspinnen. Die Kombination dieser einmal kurz-, einmal langfaserigen Materialen ist sehr angenehm zu verspinnen und auch optisch recht gelungen.)