Tuesday, April 28, 2009

High Fiber Update

Spring shearing has begun and spring fiber fever has hit me. Now that I've gotten my fleeces, I've gone nuts working on dyeing. I'm not dyeing the CVM at all, but the Dorset is fair game. I mordanted about a pound in alum. About 5 ounces is already dyed now in avocado pit dye.
4 oz is dyeing now in the avocado shell dyebath (red). Dandelion dye bath (yellow) is sitting overnight on the stove to be used tomorrow. Lichen dyebath is now fermenting on my counter to produce orchil dye, pink or purple depending on how long I can stand to let it sit.
And I've spun 2 ounces of alpaca, which is ready to be plied; and I've spun about 3 ounces of baby llama fiber which will be plied with another 3 oz when I get a chance to spin the rest of that up. Meanwhile, I'm knitting along on a bulky yarn cotton fair isle sweater, which seems an unusual combination to me but it's a test knit so I'm going with the designer's vision.

1 comment:

Henya said...

Did you say Purple?! You are making purple?! Thia I have to try. But first I have to wash my fleece.