Friday, February 4, 2011

Fiber isn't just for breakfast anymore....


Winter in Wisconsin... good time to work with wool!

Busy doing wool washing and teaching myself how to dye wool. Big fun! Decided to use the nasty white Romney fleece that I got on Ebay for cheap a couple years ago since it wouldn't break my heart if I completely screwed it up.

Started out washing the nasty stuff, full of burrs, dirt, twigs and even rocks! Ick.... After about three washings with Dawn detergent and about four rinses in hot water it still looked bad, but I let it soak. Then spun out the water and let it dry.
Turns out that it went pretty well. Here's a shot of the plain, undyed fleece that I washed a while ago:

It isn't picked or processed except for the washing, pretty underwhelming wool, isn't it? So, I decided to wash up another batch and dye it... the grand experiment, learning as I went. Armed with the instruction sheet from the Dharma Trading Company catalog I charged into the fray.






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