Dyeing for color...

It's been a while since the last time I dyed fiber and tonight my desire to do so was overwhelming. I haven't ordered any fiber in a while, but as I was rummaging through a box I found some white Shetland I'd forgotten about. Within five minutes I had it soaking for the dye pot.

(This photo is a bit unflattering, but blogger rejected the nicer picture.)

I've thrown in a combination of greens as well as some brown and gold. I really hope this one turns out nice. I'm not all that great at kettle dyeing, but the only way I'll improve is with lots of practice and experimentation. Right?

I think that part of my problem in the past has been that I usually add too much water. So long as it's not boiling this isn't necessarily bad, though it seems to dilute the colors more than I like. When it comes to colors, I'm a big fan of bold, I always have been. Even as kid, I didn't care for pastels. I loved bold colors and earthy colors, and I'm still pretty much the same as an adult. So, this time I've added roughly less than half the amount of liquid to the pot and we'll see how it turns out.

I like doing rovings the other way (more of a hand-painted style) too, it's a lot easier for me to redo them, but sometimes they just seem to be missing something. I love kettle-dyed rovings, and personally I think they almost always have more character than my hand-painted ones. In the kettle the dyes get to mingle and when they do, it's magic.

Lately, I've also been daydreaming about dyeing yarn. For weeks now. I keep trying to push the thought to the back of my mind but it wont go away. Wildly-colored kettle dyed yarns... semisolids... yarns with layers and layers of color... I'll have to consider ordering a cone of yarn to experiment with. Soon. If my experiments don't turn out well, then at least there's always over-dyeing. I'd have plenty of yarn to make socks for the family.

It's about time to take my beloved Shetland off the heat. We'll see if it turned out as soon as it's dry.