Just playing around...

Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.

-Diane Ackerman

                                                                                 —Diane Ackerman

 

Playing with fiber is definitely my happy spot, add good friends and sheep and I am truly content.   Maryland Sheep and Wool 2018 is a bright memory.  My purchases focused on yarn to dye for tapestry weaving based on some recent "play."

Above is a bundle of various white and undyed yarns in my stash.  I pulled strands of linen, wool, silk, mohair, cotton and synthetics.  I wanted to dye the bundle and see how the different fibers and textures would take the dye.

I weighed the bundle, washed it in synthrapol and mordanted it in a solution of 20% wog (weight of goods) of alum and 6% wog cream of tartar.

This is fustic.  Old fustic is available ground or as wood chips and also as an extract. It yields a range of colors from strong dark yellows to a peach color on silk, cotton and wool and it has good light-fastness.  Fustic is an easy dye to use.  I put 50 grams of fustic wood chips in some pantyhose in a crockpot of water and simmered it on low overnight. 

I was pleased with the variety of colors.

I decided to do another bundle using a similar process with cochineal.  Cochineal is a potent natural dyestuff that is derived from the crushed, dried bodies of the female cochineal bug, a scale insect native to South America. It dyes beautiful reds and pinks. The Cochineal bugs live and feed on the Prickly Pear cactus. These little critters have been crushed and used as natural dye for hundreds of years.  A little bit goes a long way!  Note in the picture above the cottons and synthetics did not take the dye.

I needed to exhaust my cochineal dye bath and had what I thought was a great idea.  I had ordered a bunch of Vevgarn in neutrals and grays several months ago.

My goal was to get various depths of shade by putting all these shades in the same dyepot.

No joy with this one.  No variation in my reds but alot of learning.

Trying to exhaust the cochineal.

Still trying to exhaust the cochineal.

Playing with my fustic dyed yarns with textured wedge weave.

Whoever wants to understand much must play much. -Gottfried Benn

Play on!