A Day to Dye For

Corriedale mix roving dyed with Wilton's food coloring in a mix of blues and greens.

I haven't had an opportunity to do any dyeing lately, but today ended up being a perfect day for it.  I was definitely needing something to pick me up today and bring some cheer into a bad day.  Dyeing roving/yarn can be such helpful fiber art therapy.

This morning I went through my stash to see what I wanted to dye.  I had some undyed Corriedale mix roving that had been sitting in my stash since I got my spinning wheel.  It definitely needs some color to entice me to spin it up.  Some Knit Picks bare fingering weight yarn became a few mini-skeins that I could dye, and I found some mini-skeins some friends had given me that needed an overdye to become better matches for my Beekeeper's quilt.

Corriedale mix roving dyed with Wilton's food coloring in a mix of yellow, greens, and green-blue.  

Started off with my roving.  I used a syringe to apply the color to the roving.  In the past, I've used a sponge brush to hand-paint my roving, but I worry it felts the roving just a bit.  The syringe works well, but I do have to be sure it goes all the way through to the other side to avoid a lot of white bits in the end (unless I want the white bits of course).  

I decided to steam my roving/yarn today instead of using the microwave.  Since my Amazon order of the seran wrap I like most (Natural Value) for microwaving wasn't here yet, I figured I'd test out the steaming method again.  It does take much longer in the steamer, but so far, I'm pleased with the results.

The above yarn was gifted to me and destined to be hexipuffs for my Beekeeper's Quilt.  It was a little too light to go with the colors I've been using, so thought I would do my first overdye experiment!  Using Wilton's food coloring, I added blues and greens to it.  

Overdyed this one with blues and green Wilton's as well.  

The above is a single I spun of Corriedale mix roving.  I mixed purple and red Wilton's together to see what I would get.  When I added it to the yarn wet, it was a mauve-ish color I suppose...it was strange.  After steaming, I got a gorgeous rose color, reminiscent of some rose colored Malabrigo I have in my stash.

Mini-skeins wrapped up and ready to go in the steamer.

Blue-Green Corriedale roving on the drying rack after being steamed.

My blue green roving came out even better than I had imagined it would!  Loving the colors!!    

Green & yellow dyed roving.

 My green and yellow colors melded together to make the above Spring inspired roving.

Mini-skeins drying on the rack

And my colorful mini-skeins...destined to be hexipuffs!

Will post pictures of all the roving and mini-skeins when they are dry...so stay tuned!