I was able to squeeze in some fiber-time-and had fun. I had to do the tedious picking of the VM out of my "Gracie" wool-but got 5 ounces done to play with. I took the idea of the "canning" method from the video on Alpaca farm Girl's Fiber Arts Friday group. I used two packages of Kool Aid for each jar-black cherry, orange, lemonaid, lemon-lime and berry blue. The berry blue seemed a bit "wimpy" for color, so I added a few spoonfuls (after adding water) of the black cherry to it. I added a cup of very hot water to each jar-a glug of vinegar and shoved an ounce of wool into each. I poked them down til saturated and then added more water-about an inch from the jar's top. I put them in the pot with water and brought it to a rolling boil then turned down to simmer for 45 minutes(or so). I let them cool overnight and took them all out and rinsed them this morning. All but the blue came out great-the blue is varigated blue/purple--but its ok. I have them sitting outside on the lawn chair to dry. I'm not sure what I will make with these, yet, but I can just enjoy looking at them for now.
WOW those colors came out great! Does the vinegar keep the reds from running later? I alway shave a hard time with Red koolaid and it bleeding out later on.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathi! WOW - I'm impressed. So glad that video was useful. Looks like you've mastered that concept. What beautiful fiber!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you shared this. It made my day!
Thanks gals-it was a lot of fun-and if something goes wrong you haven't blown a lot of money on dye
ReplyDeleteso far I haven't had any colors run-not sure what will happen after I spin it and go to set the twist, I'll let you know--I have heard that the more vinegar you use the more vibrant the colors turn out.