Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Blue footed booby

And finally, my first real indigo bath, and I am thrilled...it was so exciting. I had done this before but with a friends dyepot and so now I too, have my own pot of indigo. I loved the process although my feet are a little speckled with blue dots. Lesson one, don't wear sandals or bare feet, very drippy. Also I need a better system for putting them in the vat and turning them, it was quite a mess and also wondered if the pooling on the bottom of the skeins would make a difference.
I shall see tomorrow as I am to wait 24 hours to rinse. I did bfl, silk and merino, silk and cashmere and some mohair, like 500 grams, and still the bath was working. I am very thrilled. I ordered the real East Indian indigo, and it was a fine powder, and I did the quick fermentation method so I could do this in one day.
All of this was fun, and I will be doing it again really soon. Like tomorrow.


This is the 500 grams of Mohair which I put in the bath last, thinking I had almost exhausted it so I was quite thrilled I got such a lovely blue, but the final telling will be after I rinse it tomorrow...Now to figure out easier methods of handling the skeins and hanging them, and what to do to the not yet exhausted bath...can I extend it or what....very exciting and wonderful to watch the oxidation...I love indigo so now I think everything I do will be with this color, and it looks great as an undercolor for other natural dyes....and no mordant necessary on the wool as it is substantive dye...yes, I do love not having to mordant. I am too lazy.

2 comments:

Bethany said...

Gorgeous!

Mrs.Q said...

Lovely! Indigo is my favourite colour ever. Also, I just had my first experience dyeing yarn (not indigo, but cobalt - a good substitute) - how much fun is that! I can totally see a collection of dyeing pots and spoons in my near future.