Fiber Dyeing

Celeste was dyeing more fiber this past Saturday and invited me to have a try as well. We had quite a bit of fun playing around with the dyes.

Celeste started me off with a a few ounces of fiber separated into four chunks to give me a chance to experiment. I quickly learned several things I didn't like in the finished product, so I'm really glad I started off with samples!

(four samples from far left: 1. pink, brown, white; 2. green, blue, yellow, white; 3. yellow, pink; 4. brown, blue, white)

I learned that white areas, while cool, don't necessarily look great with most color combinations.

My pink and brown sample (far left) actually has a white tip and I like that one, but the white with darker colors didn't look as nice. Actually, most of the white spots are hidden in this photo!

I also learned the yellow dye was quite bright! We dubbed it "highlighter yellow". However, after Celeste played around with a bit, we ended up with a nice banana tone. Much better.

Oh, and blue and brown? It could work in the right context, but somehow as I look at this fiber now, all I can see is a bruise colorway. ;P

After the samples, it was time for a larger braid. I was a little nervous, but took my time deciding how I wanted to dye the skein and I'm really happy with the way it came out.

I started with pink, then added a bit of brown and green and finished up with blue. I love how the blue blended with the pink looks (the purple areas in the above photo).

Next up, I dyed this braid.

By this time, I was ready to hit my home base, so this fiber predominately my favorite color, blue. :)

I decided to start with a light blue base and blend pink, light green, and dark blue into it. I love this one. I wish the photos were more accurate, but my camera isn't photographing blue and green very well lately so this is the best I could do!

It's a bit lighter than this photo, but here you can see the color variations better than in the top photo:

While we were dyeing, I took quite a few process photos, so those will probably be making an appearance on one of our blogs soon! :)