Fibre Friday: Spinning and Dyeing
Last weekend I had the great fortune to help organize and of course attend the Maritime Spinners Retreat. This year it was held here on Cape Breton Island. What a time we had! The theme was “Dyeing to Spin” so we spent time dyeing fibre as well as spinning.
I dyed some wool from Cape Breton sheep with G&K Dyes – blue, teal, and black. I simmered it in a pot:
Citric acid was then added to the water to make the dye set (vinegar can also be used). Then I rinsed it out and let it dry. The colours came out beautifully:
The next step was carding the wool to prepare it for spinning. Instead of hand carders, I used a handy drum carder:
And then I had this lovely batt of wool ready to be spun:
I thoroughly enjoyed spinning up the wool on my spinning wheel. I decided to make it fun, lumpy, bumpy art yarn:
During the weekend, in addition to enjoying the company of other spinners, I spun up some beautiful super wash merino wool for sock yarn. I also dyed some silk hankies to spin and the colours turned out just gorgeous. I haven’t had a chance to spin them yet, but I’m looking forward to it. I hope to attend the Maritime Spinners Retreat again in the future. I hadn’t been to one in several years. Next year it will be held in New Brunswick.
Here is what a gathering of almost 100 people with their spinning wheels looks like:
Do you ever have a chance to get away from it all for a weekend at a retreat? What are you or your kids knitting, crocheting, sewing, or spinning this week? Please let me know in the comments below!
Love, Luck &
Laughter,
Kimberly
We need to pick and clean our wool so we can start the dying process here….
We had already cleaned and picked the wool that we put in the goody bags in advance for the retreat weekend, so I didn’t have to 🙂 I have been known to spin in the grease though.