Midsummer. Hope.

With patience wonderful Margret showed us the secrets of dying yarn and animal fibers. First step is to understand the basic colours. And there content. Like Ocra (yellow) has nickel in it (highly allergic for some) and that most dyes of this lot is actually food colouring (not harmless)... as a base. The great about the mixing here, is that you not only can mix 2 or three colours, but that you also have strength in % to think about. Check this next chart out, which has the same colours but in 0,1% and 2% (I think).
Check this out. You have three base colours, and you mix them 1 and 9, 2 and 8 etc..
There is also a smart system that tell you what the sample you are working on left, top right so how much of first, second and thid colour (sum always 10 when 1o shades!)
So you start and mix, and even if you only have very small samples (being very careful with measuring) it is still one hour. But the result, you can see our 5 gram yarn, that will go to several samples. Great. And, I might drop in some more about it. Maybe more pictures, but - Im back in "normal mode". It is midsummer in Sweden. Im feeling a bit better, had semi-good news about another job.. so, I will show off my dyinglot. (and yes, thanks again Margret for a great course!)



The final result is not so bad after all: In my Canadian Louis Bugnet rose you can see all my yarn. So, from the left, the Estonian mohair and wool (50/50% from Maria G), PS, the yarn contained dead hair! not great for colouring. In front the lime. The red is where I sneaked a bit of my cashmere into dear Tuulas dye. (she was very successful) And the lighter is Alpacka, the darker is the cashmere (glad I didn't unwind all of my dear cone. Well, it was a 3% dye, so it took well.. too well. No I will knit my way into midsummer!

More colour and life ramblings, and a bit IKAT

The Färgkraft fantastic dyeing weekend (enough happenings to fill my blog for a long time) is growing on me. I realized I learned something. I realized that I should never dye when I'm tired, but only when inspired. I realized the possibilities - they are endless, exactly like the spinning and knitting experience. Anyway, this is how my yarn looked like before. The lime and grey are Färgkraft very special Swedish sheep furblend (pälsull). the white is alpacka, and the more yellow-ocra that you just see a glimpse of is real cashmere. There is also a white hank of Estonian 50% mohair and 50% wool from Maria G (sock yarn) in there. And, basically you boil it between 80 and 90 degrees Celcius for an hour. (and using smart chemicals like Baylan, which aids the colour to join with the yarn at a lower temprature - meaning 80 is ok!)
Of course the yarn is washed (in Didavin) beforehand (we had our yarn laying overnight for a wet in the special soap, and the washing it clean in lukewarm water. To the right, you can see the grey yarn - with the Japanese technique IKAT, which means you tie cotton very hard around the hank (and do NOT wet beforehand- but it must be clean yarn). The idea is that you should protect the yarn from the dye. It will have interesting effects when knitting. Also, one hank of yarn? hmm. it is one thread. and very soft. Will be interesting.
The final lime really got smart with the lime. But bear in mind My contrasting colour was ment to be about the same green as the background, but as I said. I grabbed Marine blue instead of the lighter - plain blue. Now, afterwards a true turqoize could also have been great. Well, live and learn. I definitely learned something. And I'm so greatful. It was just that combination of total failure that overwhelmed me. It is over now. I got a cold instead. I have also learned that a cold is the body's "inner cry", a good defence of sadness. Sadness has nothing to do with this great course. It has to do with my current worksituation. My new manager makes life very hard for me. I'm just not ment to be controlled on a detailed level, and ask for permission to talk to people within the company. It seems so oldfashion and delimiting, I'm speechless. I just do not understand how these psychopatic men can be elected. They sure want to control the world. Have they ever heard the leadership words MOTIVATION and INSPIRATION? Well, In this context I think I just totally bummed out when my colour went wrong. But the great learning is - you learn from everything. And, Im warming up to this colour. It is definitely my hubby's favo.. He is what we in Sweden call "skogsmulle", which might be freely translated to forestgnom...but actually refer to a school that existed for minors (no, not the scouts or brownies), where kids go into the forest and learn to play and respect the wonders there... It was popular when we grew up (in the 60s. Hubby is still a tree-hugger. So with this, he will blend in with the fur and pine-trees.

More colouring, and some other things..

We started the dying course with mixing some slimy stuff (algees?) in very thick (to stamp) and a more maple syrap thickness (for more control).. with the pulver dyes. Then we had a whole section of different silks, and some wool to test how it floated and behaved. You might be able to spot the crane (in dark) in the middle on the left, which is a silkscreen. We also discussed favourite colours, and you can see me going nuts here. My friend Tuula, was much more cool and collected and did this very planned and smart samples (writing the different colours). I especially like her square pattern. Easy to move into knitting.
Then we had some left over colour, that we used to drop and stamp on this yarn. You can see my current favourite colours, lime, turqoise, green, and purple. Looks like children are having fun with your favourite yarn, but Stop a minute and think. This will be an excellent mitten yarn, where you create a lice (lus) or maybe two or three depending on your dots sizes and stick size. Cool? This special preparation, will make it easier to fix. You just steam-damp it in your "saft-maja" rolled into a cloth. (hmm steam it - I just do not know how to translate that. Sorry. But is not these colours just yummy for a sweater, or mittens (hmm only did 100grams so...)! Just lovely yummy yarn - all wool.
Also, all cloth got fixated the same way. Steam damping. Got one last picture of that. Of course it blurrs a little, but knitted it will look fine. Cannot wait to knit. Otherwise, I worked to 1.30, was up 6.30 today, and just got home 10 at nite.. Am I tired? You betja!
But two last heavy deadline before real summer gets me. And hold the thumbs for me. If I'm super lucky I get to fly the Atlantic to yarnshop frenzy in the US (North Carolina) (no, it was work work work.. but some yarnshop must be open, and some hours must be available. It just must!)

First Quick update

Im exhausted. Spent 3.5 hours on a train with no windows and no aircondition, overcrowded around 40 degrees (and no water or service either!) And - my colouring went catastrofic. Why? Dogs- OverSensitivity/allergy - Medicine- tired- stressed- and general catastrophic expectatation made me mix marine blue with blue.
I will show the result.It is not funny. Unfortunately, that was the last impression of my course, so it right now is overbearing. BUT - It was a intense and fantastic weekend with Tuula (the other pupil like me on the right) and our amazing teacher Margret on the left. Ok. Sneak peak of pictures Im going to feel this coming weeks with!