Spiffy Sunday

Sue, you really need to stop using new and cool words around me cuz I love this one:

SPIFFY

Ok, here are the results of yesterday's dyeing. The middle stack is the one where I poured in both crimson and orange (pumpkin(?) dark orange was the name on the package). I'm overall mostly disappointed in the results. I don't see a lot of color variation except for a few areas. Definitely not as much as I wanted. In fact, the entire batch looks very much the same color as the reds I show in my previous post which were dyed with scarlet. So evidently the combination of crimson and orange created a similar color. Oh, and I didn't use the entire package of each dye so the colors are a more medium tone. More experimentation needs to be done with that technique. I think perhaps the red was too strong and I should have added less. Back to the drawing board.

I used the rest of the orange package of dye on the fabric stack to the right and the fabric stack on the left is a half a package of olive. By the way, for those who are interested, I'm running my washer at the lowest possible water level and the fabrics you see pictured are half yard cuts.


A question was asked in the comments of yesterday's post by mymarkdesigns:
"I love how your fabric colors turned out, but I wonder about using the washer... doesn't it mess up your regular laundry at all? Do you have to run the washer empty after a dye job to 'clean' it?"

Here is what I did: After the washer runs the dye cycle, you are instructed on the package to run another washing cycle with mild detergent. I just used what I normally wash clothes with. Then when that is done I remove the fabric and find a layer of light color clinging to the sides of my washer. The color isn't clinging to the washer components themselves, it's clinging to whatever scum, grime etc. is clinging to the side walls of the tub. Nasty, I know! So I take my handy dandy Magic Eraser (sorry Sue) and wipe all the color away, which is very easy. Then I take a paper towel and wiped away the excess.

So then I washed a load of lights and whites. Now when I wash, I do not use bleach because of my septic system. But I do use a scoop of OxyClean in each load and my whites stay nice and bright. So I washed the load my normal way with OxyClean and some detergent and when it was done I didn't notice any residual dye lingering anywhere. Now I don't guarantee my results will work for everyone....so please please test before you yell at me!

The next two photos are my latest handspun yarns. The first one is wool roving that I corespun onto a wool thread. The second yarn is a lovely batt that I corespun onto wool thread and there is also bits of novelty yarns spun in here and there. The photos don't show the glorious colors of these very well....plus it's cloudy here today so the flash went off when shooting the pics.


And this last photo is what I'm currently working on. I got to this stage yesterday and now I'm waiting for it to tell me what more, if anything, it needs. I can't decide if that blank area in the lower right needs something or not. So perhaps if I look at it for a few days, she'll shout out to me.