Color me tickled

With an extended holiday weekend (being on-call for work stuff notwithstanding), I decided this was the weekend to Get Serious about dyeing. I mixed up the dye solutions for all the Mother MacKenzie Miracle Dyes (9 colors in all), plus getting some wool mordanted for some natural dyeing also planned for the weekend.

I won't say the dyeing has gone perfectly - it hasn't - but what it has done is been fun! What didn't go well:

• first mordant batch boiled a bit, so I fear I've partially felted the wool
• dyeing in jars worked for some dyes (quebracho green) and not for others (madder)
• the acid dyes for my first attempt did not mix at all, leaving me with roving showing discreet colors instead of a single rich color like I intended

From all that I learned to be even more careful with which burner I put the pots on to prevent unintended boiling, to try and make sure the acid dyes are mixed more thoroughly and to try a few more assistants (the next batch I'm using salt as well as vinegar), and that you can always throw stuff back in a pot if it didn't turn out quite as you planned (which is what I did with the madder - took it out of jars and just dumped it all in a single pot for more freedom of dye distribution).

Here's what my first batch of colors look like:
The blue-purple one is an acid dye, the red-orange is madder, and the green-tan at the end is quebracho green.

I have some more items going in the pot today, and while they're thinking about life, I'll be taking that quebracho-dyed yarn and blending it with some honey-colored tussah silk. And when I'm not blending, I'll be carding and spinning some more of that icelandic I've been working with. And when I'm not carding and spinning, I'll be making some progress on some old knitting I have.

But first, I'll drink my coffee.