Today the adventure begins to spin up all the fibre I dyed yesterday. So after I dyed up Day 11 of my advent five bits club, I grabbed a decaf coffee and found a cozy corner to sit and spin for a while. My wheel is a Schacht Ladybug wheel that I bought in 2017. She is very reliable and always gets the task at hand done.
I managed to get one of the “mini tops” spun. This colour is gorgeous in natural light; not as good as the camera. Don’t worry; after I turn all the fibre into yarn, I will take pictures outside where the lighting is best.
I watched a great class by the School of Sweet Georgia on natural dyeing with Fresh Indigo Leaves by Caitlin Ffrench. It made me run out to my garden and try to salvage what I had left as I realized I was underwatering them. It was a great refresher and showed how I could improve on the steps she demonstrated. I highly recommend all of Caitlin’s classes on natural dyeing and the school itself; so many topics to learn in the fibre arts.
Anyway, back to my garden, I went outside and picked off all the dried or damaged leaves, and I got rid of some plants that were crowding them. I also realized something is eating the smaller leaves (the plants are in containers, so I don’t think it is slugs) so if you have any idea, please comment below. Here is a before video, and I’ll post another video in the next post.
I also had some leftover dye yesterday, so I plunked in a skein of superwash Corriedale (a fantastic hard-wearing sock yarn). I saw the results last night, and the colour was too light, so I added some madder extract. Let’s see how that turns out tomorrow.
If you know anyone that is wanting to learn to use natural dyes, please share this blog post and remember to subscribe to this website, so you get a notification as to when I post my journey of dyeing and spinning again. Cheers,
Keli
