Roving To Dye For

Aloha! You all knew this was coming . . . show off your hand dyed roving or fiber!!

I dyed up my first batch of KP's Superwash Merino/Nylon and Merino/Silk - so yummy, fluffy, soft and heavenly . . .

Please post your photos and comments - Can't wait to see all your creations!

Here is my SW Merino/Nylon:

and the Merino/Silk:

~ christina

Tags: dyed, dyes, hand, knit, merino, roving, silk, spinning, superwash, wool

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Beverly Roberts on April 12, 2012 at 8:00am

Love it!

Permalink Reply by KnitWhich? on April 29, 2012 at 11:22am

That is gorgeous! Love the color, the spinning, the knitting and the pattern!

Permalink Reply by Elaine Wenger on April 11, 2012 at 1:30pm

A roving dyed with Dharma Lilac. Probably should have added more ammonium sulfate to get this more even,and yarn dyed with Dharma Sage.

Permalink Reply by Susan the Blue Lake Knitter on April 11, 2012 at 1:35pm

Elaine, These are lovely! I really like the lilac, even though it isn't more even... I like shading.

Permalink Reply by Elaine Wenger on April 11, 2012 at 2:04pm

Thank you ,Susan. After I spin the lilac, I'm thinking of returning it to the dyepot to see what would happen.

Permalink Reply by wendy on April 11, 2012 at 2:08pm

Oh no! It's gorgeous. I love it!

Permalink Reply by christina | AlohaBlu on April 11, 2012 at 2:15pm

beautiful! my two fave colors :) oh, i think i'll have to add sage to my wish list!

Permalink Reply by Elaine Wenger on April 11, 2012 at 2:34pm

About the sage, I had an old skein of Lion Brand in sage. I liked the color but the Lion Brand was too course and scratchy for me. So when I dyed this I just kept gradually adding a little more dye stock every 15 minutes and got really close to the color I was shooting for. I do fine getting a nice even color on yarn. On the lilac, I should have used 2 teaspoons of ammonium sulfate, but I was not sure at the time. The reason I think that is because the color struck the fiber immediately. With the ammonium sulfate it should have slowed down and evened out the strike. I get nervous moving roving around too much as it can get very compacted and not alot of fun to get it drafting nicely to spin. Also I used the bridal veil in the roving batch and it worked very well. It made it so easy to lift the roving and add the citric acid.

Permalink Reply by wendy on April 11, 2012 at 3:55pm

Elaine I was thinking of you the other day when I was reading a post on ravelry about fluffing up dyed/compacted rovings. They steam their rovings to open the fibers up.

I love the tonal look of the lilac, very beautiful!

ETA - did you take any pictures of your bridal veil in the roving batch? I use tulle netting for cleaning locks, but have considered doing the same thing you're talking about. I'd love to see some pics if you have them.

Permalink Reply by Elaine Wenger on April 11, 2012 at 4:29pm

Thank you and thank you for the tip on steaming.. Sorry I did not take any pics of the bridal veil. I use a 22 quart Turkey Roaster for my dyepot. I laid my roving on the bridal veil in an 'S' formation the same as it would fit in the roaster and put it in my presoak. When the presoak was done, I prepared my dyepot, then I just lifted the bridal veil with the roving on top out of the presoak, gently squeezed excess water out and put the whole thing in the dyepot. It made it easy to grab the corners of the bridal veil and lift the whole thing, stir the pot and then lower the whole thing back down in.

Permalink Reply by Peggy Stuart on April 14, 2012 at 7:42pm