What A Week We Had!!

Jars and roving ready for solar dyeing.

 

Shibori dyeing silk with icing dyes.

 

Small glass accent gems tied into a silk scarf.

 

Silk chiffon with dye applied, waiting for the microwave.

 

My friend, Linda was here for five days last week...

...and boy, did we have fun!!

We each made a couple of felted bags, spun locks into yarn (with a wheel!)...

...and tried several different methods of dyeing wool roving and silk.

We even had a surprising and unique encounter in a discount fabric store...

...when we got to chatting with a woman in line at the cutting table...

...who sews teeny-tiny costumes for exotic dancers (strippers)!

(...and yes...she tells us that the fabric she buys must be very stretchy!!) Giggle.

Linda showed me how to use both 'acid' and 'icing' dyes...

...and we steamed, microwaved...

...and even cached jars of roving, water, vinegar and dye in my hot car for a day!!

I sewed several scarves into packages for Shibori dyeing...

...and even stitched little flat marbles into a scarf, prior to dyeing, for a tie-dyed look.

Next time: photos of some of our finished work!

Orange Scarf (More Kool-Aid!)

 
 
 

I wanted to make something warm and colorful for a friend of mine who 'Winters' in Cleveland (she spends the rest of the seasons there, too...but I think one notices it most in the Winter!!)

I made it large, so that it could be used as a scarf or shawl.

I used white roving and added squares of printed sari silk that I cut irregularly with my rotary cutter.

I also added some yellow candlewick cotton thread and (bien sur!) my favorite
wiggly fringe.

When I had felted it, I dyed it in orange Kool-Aid.

It's a Christmas gift, but I mailed it last week...due to my penchant for
crafting and shopping months early...and also so that if she chooses to open it early, she'll have at least another month of use.

This is disturbing to many people.

One very good friend in particular (who shops in December like everyone else) has banned me from discussing my Christmas shopping in July or my summer holiday crafting with her.

Her quote? "Heather, this is the one thing I really hate about you!" Har.

Double Kool-Aid Dyeing

 
 

When I've dyed things with Kool-Aid in the past, I've always over-dyed them...putting the finished garment into a dye bath after all of the felting and processing is completed.

This time, I thought I would be clever and dye the silk scarf blank with Tropical Punch Kool-Aid prior to adding my fiber.

I added brown wool to the reverse side (to help the nuno process along by giving the individual fibers on the front something to 'lock onto' as they migrated through the silk)...and bits of yellow and orange to the front side.

...plus my favorite wiggly fringe.

...what I didn't realize, however, was that the process of felting with soapy, warm water would remove most of the scarf's color by the time it was finished.

It was a pale replica of it's vibrant self.

So, I dyed it again.

Wow. It sure is a bright salmon color now!

...but cheerful.

...and luckily, it went to a recently ill friend to encourage healing.

(and it wasn't too bright for her!) :)

Modified Bark Scarf

 
 
 
 


This project was a lengthy one. I first made a large rectangle of felt using inclusions in white roving. As you can see in the last two photos...it was rather blah.

I was inspired to try a project of Chad Alice Hagen's from the book Fabulous Felted Scarves by CAH and
Jorie Johnson...a book well worth purchasing!

In it, she describes how to make a bark design using parallel stitching with strong thread (I used thick, coated thread for sewing on coat buttons from a huge, ancient wooden spool of 'John C. Meyer Thread-Lowell Mass' that has been in my possession for at least 30 years.)

The wool fabric is first sewn, then the threads are pulled tightly and tied off prior to dyeing.

Of course, it's supposed to be bark, but I really wanted to try Kool-Aid dyeing and only had a few colors-so I decided to match the inclusions already in the scarf and dyed it purple!

...Hmmm...perhaps not the look I was going for...but the dyeing was a lot of fun!
You immerse the fabric in a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid plus boiling water and vinegar...and the color actually migrates into the wool fabric. When the process is complete, you have a dyed scarf floating in clear water! "The magic of science!"
Very Cool!