Dye Momma, Dye!

Oh, man. I am just so freaking excited I can't see straight! Yesterday my new spinning group (new to me, old to them) had their annual Dye Day. It rained some, but no big deal. It cleared up, and for a while was purrrr-fect weather. It started getting hot not long after lunch, but by then we were winding down.

Emily, the woman who kindly contacted me through a fluke of finding out there was another spinner in town, just to let me know there was a local spinning group, pretty much took me by the hand, knowing I knew ZERO about dyeing. Nothing. Nada. Zilch! I'd brought a total of 8 oz. of scoured locks (four very sadly too-loosely packed sausage rolls wrapped in tulle that all but came apart in the process) and also 2 partial balls of Romney commercially-combed undyed top. She showed me the mason jar method, and that's pretty much what I used for the top.

OMIGOD! LOOK AT THESE! I can now DO this... myself!

My very first. AND absolute favorite. A trilogy of plum, caramel and yellow




And my old standard color combo that I just can't resist. I just had to see if I could get it myself.


But there isn't enough of it so I can combine it with another for this. Either spin some of each alternately for one consistent colorway or spin them separately and stripe them (same colors, opposite dominants).


And I decided to break my boycott of purple 2 weeks ago. This is my first purple thing. I've always hated purple. But dammit, playing with fiber just makes every color something you just have to have!


Here it is with some of it unbraided.


And then there's this. Not really enough to do anything with, but okay, a few stripes in something, maybe even the purple. GO MAD!!


And even this, which isn't my favorite. But it's just fine!


Dye Momma Dye! Here it all is on the washing machine. I have a feeling it's not entirely dry inside, and I probably shouldn't have braided it yet. But such eye candy!!


The loose locks? Well, the locks we just dyed in vats (solids). A "hunters beware" type orange, a knocked down more golden orange and flat out serious, historical royal family, Joseph's Coat type purple. The fourth? THE most amaaaazing hybrid of the orange that I think we overdyed in some sort of salmon, and it came out either an intense watermelon or a perfect balance within coral. But Jenny came unglued over that color. I mean, it was like showing something shiny to a blonde. She just gazed into it, or maybe through it, but she just looked totally hypnotized by it, so I gave it to her. (I kept one lock just in case someone might someday know how the heck to get that color again.) But she's working with something in an almost companion color and I had the feeling she'd work this into that.

What a FUN day that was. Sheeesh. I hate to say it, but my treasured canner is going to be forfeited away from food use VERY soon. When I go to Hanover at the end of the month, I'm hitting the LYS (an hour from here) and it's going to be dye buying day, because no WAY am I done with this!