Thursday, June 24, 2010

Wool roving dying



as promised here is the photo of my wool dying efforts! not such a great photo but eh I'm getting better. I did one evening worth and then one afternoons worth to get this much. I'm in hospital tomorrow for an operation so I knew I'd be needing something to look forward to for when I get home after the day surgary.

Anyways out of four food colors I sure did get a lot of shades, a lot of it is just trial and error, mixing how you want and seeing how it goes!

Monday, June 21, 2010

wool roving dying tips

well I have been a busy bee! I did a whole heap of wool dying last night and this afternoon. I've taken photos but my manly creature has to edit them for me as I'm hopeless at that stuff.

So until then some tips for you all who wish to try dying or who want to improve their dying skills

most of it is pretty simple its just preparation and time

boil kettle full of water fill up a dish with water and acid I have used both lemon juice and vinegar I've worked out for me lemon juice works best for some reason at making sure the color doesn't run.

I soak the wool after tearing the amount I want colored first in with lemon juice I find whilst you're boiling other wool its best to have the wool in for about 20 minutes and then the acid really works.

I then boil the kettle again, pour into sauce pan I'm using, add the color into the water and stir so its even in the pot. I then add wool and gently press it until it submerges.

Wait until pot is boiling, gently pressing a couple of times to make sure wool keeps under water so the color is even.

When I tip the wool in I tip it in with the water it was being prepared in as it keeps the acid process going with the heat and you get really vibrant colors. I say simmer it for about half an hour.

Drain, rinse wool with cold water and lay out on kitchen sink to dry

I'm also using at the moment a merino white wool with 29 microns I hope to buy some softer wool in future

so have on hand

gloves
color for dying I used general food dye in primary colors
strainer
saucepans I say two at least cause you can use one for dark colors and one for light colors so the two don't mix if remants of colors remain
metal spoon or fork
plastic containers
I used an icecream container and a small yoghurt container to mix dye and acid/water

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Winter Queen









gosh the people on the internet is so kind and generous! I'm on www.feltingforum.com and I made a post about how my depression has been affecting my work as of late. Not just needle felting but sewing as well. Normally I'm happy to show off even the most basic of standards of things but this whole month I've been feeling shy and awkward about showing anything off. I'll create something and then I'll be like no its not good enough.

I'm probably classed about an intermediate in needle felting as I've been doing it since around Christmas now. I've got the handle of most things such as shape and form but details is the thing that gets me. Anyways I digress. The felting forum everyone rallied for me saying not to worry and be kind to yourself. I've taken that on board! and not only that a friend of mine offered to send over some wool of hers as she keeps goats.

Kay Petal also let me view her pups online class! and I'm keeping that special for when I've had my operation on Friday the 25th so I've got something to look forward to when I can barely walk. Nothing serious just something that needs to be taken out of my foot.

Anyways today I woke up to find I'd won something from Kay's blog giveaway! I'd made a post about it awhile ago I'm so excited to have entered now as I was mainly doing it to share the link around. I won a set of her super duper felting needles which I'll also keep for special projects.

Now to show off my latest work, work you say? you've done something you mean? yush yush I have! here she is really inspired for the Winter solstice.

Winter Queen

Friday, June 4, 2010

fun new website and random stuff

well I haven't done any real updates as of late as I've promised however I've been lurking behind the scenes. I just haven't been able to get inspired so I've been reading others blogs and sites such as this one.

http://learnneedlefelting.com

very intuitive and fun and the owner/admin is awesome... anyways hopefully I can get into the swing of things soon to show you what I've been up to. I have needle felted recently just have not been able to get motivated to take decent photos *sighs*