Thursday, May 7, 2009

FO: Petunia Roving

Thank you all for the great dyeing (and clean up!) advice yesterday. I did get the blue dye off the stone counters with Clorox, which also got most of it off my hands. To answer a couple of questions posed in the comments (which I can't answer directly because Blogger won't give me your email addresses):

CraftyLzrd, roving is a long strip of wool that is already washed and combed and prepared for hand spinning. You can buy it by weight from lots of different suppliers in all sorts of fibers and colors, and there are lots of Etsy sellers who offer hand painted roving. It saves the spinner the time and effort of starting with an unwashed fleece. It also creates wool in which the fibers are mostly aligned in one direction, so that you end up with a smoother, firmer yarn than you usually would with hand carded fiber, where the fibers are kind of jumbled.

Tracy, I sprayed the roving with vinegar because that's what the directions I was following said to do. I have found other directions that recommend soaking the roving in vinegar water before dyeing, and still others that indicate you should mix the vinegar with the dye. I'm sure any of these ways will work; the important thing is getting the vinegar and the dye both onto the fiber, since the vinegar (which is the "acid" in my acid dye) acts as a setting agent for the dye.

Here's my dyed roving, all dried and braided (there are seven braids there; I just wound them around each other for the picture). The color looks pretty accurate on my monitor.

I spun a bit last night to see how it would come out. So far I'm not in love, but I'll post a picture when I have some plied up.

13 comments:

Amy S. said...

It's nice! Seems lighter and more blended than in the wet pix. Still eagerly awaiting the next intallment!

Mrs. Homesteader said...

It's beautiful! I love how roving looks once it's all braided up - completely different from when it's hanging out to dry!

Sharon said...

Very pretty roving! I found that adding a touch of red to the green can tone it down and make it more complex. But it's tricky; too much turns it brown.

However, I think it looks great just the way it is.

Wanderingcatstudio said...

It looks so nice all bundled up like that.. another dying tip... if you put the vinegar directly in your dye, apparently it keeps the colours from blending too much where the meet... or so I've been told.. I don't put it in the dye any more, I just soak the yarn in vinegar & water because I like it when my colours flow from one to the other

Kim said...

It's beautiful!

Karen said...

I look forward to seeing it spun up because I think the rovings are beautiful.

CraftyLzrd said...

Thanks for the explanation! :) I've not tried my hand at spinning yet so had no idea. I really like the way its coming along.

Tracy Purtscher said...

I think it's lookin pretty good. Can't wait to see some spun and plied...I'm really poor at predicting what the end product ill look like also.

marit said...

Looking forward to seeing what it looks like when spun! But isn't it easier to spin the yarn first and then dye it? Or do you get too long or too short blocks of colour? The fleece I'm working on, is all natural- the sheep is bluishblack, so the fleece is bluishgrey next to the skin, with black tips...I'm done washing it, it's drying right now.

Anonymous said...

that's actually really pretty. Not sure what it will look like knitted up, though. Maybe if you don't like it you could sell it on ebay? I'd buy some for neat looking socks for my daughters!

Unknown said...

Well I am impressed. I love the colours.

Angelika said...

Look at you go. What pretty braids.

Romi said...

I love it! It looks great. :)