Easter Dyes

A week ago Jim said he wanted to do something fun for date night. After he picked me up from work, we went home and dyed Easter eggs. We haven't dyed eggs since we moved here to Virginia and it was kind of a fun thing to do.

When we were finished dying the eggs, Jim wanted to throw the dyes out. I told him he couldn't! I don't know what you do with your left over egg dyes, but at my house wool is found and placed in those lovely liquid solutions.

Jim had picked the vibrant colors on the Paas box and the eggs, plus the wool turned out really nice.

The colors on the back two rows are from the original dye. Didn't they turn out lovely, or they would be if I had taken a picture in the daylight. The three rovings on the front rung are from the second batch. They are not nearly as bright, but I am quite pleased with them and I exhausted all the dye.


Now to see if I can figure out how I want to spin it! Happy knitting and spinning.

Yesterday morning I wanted to do some dying. I couldn't find my dyes!!! How frustrating, to know I have some dyes somewhere and not be able to find them! After about two hours of looking and wondering, I decided to use kool-aid. I used three packets of tropical punch on about 8 oz. of wool.






Neither one of the pictures accurately depict the color that turned out. The bottom of the pan was more saturated so is a darker color and the top is variegated. I think I will like it once it is spun, but we will see.

I did find my dyes last night when I was looking for something else! Now I can do some other experiments. I am going to need some plain white wool before very long.

On the shawl front, I frogged it and reknit it. Once I got to the third skein, I decided it needed to be done on larger needles. I am now, since this picture was taken, back to the third skein and I like how the shawl is turning out much better. The larger needles make the pattern more lacy which make it prettier, in my opinion. I can almost see the end in sight, again.

Yesterday afternoon, I took "R" and "C" and one of "R's" friends to the lake. They had quite a lot of fun skipping rocks and goofing off. The water was pretty cold, so they didn't get in all the way. I only waded in to just over my knees and said that was enough. I figured "R" had permission from his PO to go to the lake, so we had better go. We only spent two hours there, but I came back with sun burnt knees and the boys both have red backs. No, I was the idiot and forgot the sunscreen!


There are the boys on the island. Checking out the water and finding rocks to skip. It was a fun outing and something that we needed to do together. Jim and "A2" didn't join us as they went somewhere else and then home for ES to rest. ES has pneumonia, since Tuesday, and tires easily.

Warning! Picture heavy post!

It has been a long week this past week. The boys are getting ready to start school tomorrow. Hip, hip, hooray! They went shopping for clothes with money their dad sent, on Wednesday. I then took "C" on Thursday evening to get some more of his clothes which he didn't want to get with "R".

On Wednesday I finally finished spinning three bobbins of the "sea foam" roving. Friday night and Saturday morning I plied the bobbins to get this beautiful three ply.


I think it really looks much better in person. I haven't counted the yards yet, but I think there are around 200. I think this would make a wonderful scarf or something else. Any suggestions?

Yesterday was spent at the fiber guilds dye workshop. We had lots of fun with black walnuts and indigo.

We started with two piles of fiber like this. One pile went into the indigo and the other into the black walnut.


It was a lot of fun watching the indigo change from green to blue as it hit the air! The black walnut turned out such lovely shades. The roving that Heather and Lyn put in were a camelid color at first. Lyn put her roving back in the dye pot to get a darker color which she likes much better.

We had rain this year. It is the first time in all the years of doing the dye workshop that it has rained. Granted, it didn't rain very much, but the drops were h-u-g-e. We did run to put spinning wheels in cars or the house before they got wet. It kind of put a damper on the spinning for the rest of the afternoon.

On the umbrella stand is only a portion of what was dyed. The skeins and roving all look pretty hanging there drying.
Heather has two very different indigo dyed rovings. The one on the left is from the first dye pot and was put in with two other rovings in a mesh bag. The right side is from the second pot with the roving just put in the pot, not in the mesh bag. The one on the left will be a pretty variegated yarn, I think.

Finally, just for you Lyn. Here's a picture of one of the oil lamps I made for girls camp. It fits in just the palm of my hand. And no, I haven't tried lighting it!
Well, happy knitting & spinning!