More testing, more writing, and more testing, and more writing-

I'm so glad the weather has turned cool because it's perfect for all the wool dyeing I am doing in preparation for my thirteenth Quilt University class (www.quiltuniversity.com) which should debut early in 2011.

I have located the places where I will order the wool yarn, roving, wool flannel, and wool felt my students can purchase off my web site. New products for the supply list!

Now I test, test, and re-test and then write, write, and re-write some more anticipating questions and problems my students may have as they try the projects.

Pictured above is a fun way to get three variations of one color on one skein of yarn; or perhaps you will want to variegate your roving or felt or flannel.

Here are my final results. It's so easy! I can't wait to see what you do with these lessons.

So far, I have purchased 8 skeins of wool yarn (almost 3,000 yards worth) and many pounds of roving along with several yards of wool flannel and felt.

My daughter is in hog (sheep?) heaven because after I dye the stuff, I turn it over to her to spin and knit and torture with the barbed needles. It's high production around here.

And here's something I just learned: do you know the difference between "felting" and "fulling"? It was news to me!

Happy dyeing.

DYEING WOOL WITH ACID DYES AND MX DYES

I am dyeing and writing and writing and dyeing then writing some more.

The next new Quilt University (www.quiltuniversity.com) class, Dyeing Wool is coming along. Above you can see my first round of experiments using acid dyes on wool fabric, a bit of roaving, and yarn. Glorious.


In lesson one we dye bold bright colors as well as multicolored and variegated colors. Next week I will show you what's up for lesson two and three.

One of the very best things about acid dyes is that what you put into the pot gets used up so you know there are no left overs. This is the "after" shot....

This is the "before" shot when the dyes had just been added. Amazing, eh? I'm loving this.

Just ordered some exotic yarns to test. Yahooooo!

The wool yarn, roaving, felt, and fabric will be available on my web site sometime in December so you can get started collecting your supplies for this online class.

I expect Wool Dyeing to be available early 2011. Are you ready??

Dyeing Wool- let the games begin!

Last week I started writing my next Quilt University course called, imaginatively enough, "Dyeing Wool". It will be a four course affair covering the basics of dyeing wool yarn, wool roving, wool fabric/felt with acid dyes, Procion MX dyes and some natural dyes.

I have posted some dyed wool yarn results on this blog so now need to test roving for those spinners out there or felters who are in love with nuno and needle felting and other fabulous fiber fun.

I started with one ounce of roving which measures about 58" in length.

I made a recipe with the acid dyes that I can duplicate with Procion MX dyes. I wanted a red orange color; the point being to see the differences in color when the Procion MX dyes are used fresh; after 1 week, and then again after 2 week's time. This is the MX dyeing the roving. I had a pan next to it that contained the acid dyes. When "cooking" the colors looked fairly similar.

It was in the rinsing process that the big shift occurred. About half of the intensity of color came out with the rinse but of course the acid dyes held fast and rinsing was a snap. What goes in, stays in. Beautiful.

Here you can see the difference in the two colors. Everything is identical except for the dye powder used.

I have saved some liquid Procion MX without any chemicals in it to test again in one week. Then I have a third batch that I will test again in two weeks. Supposedly, Procion dyes can be used as acid dyes after a two week wait period. In my testing so far, this has been true. Bright, vivid colors. I'll keep you posted.

I would expect this class to be ready for public consumption early in 2011. Interested?