With the new Gaywool dyes in stock, I thought I would have a little fun. I decided to keep things simple by immersion dyeing some wool roving. First was to go through my stash and find something to dye. I found this lovely roving, described only as “organic fibre”.

Following the directions given, I soaked it for 30 minutes with a little detergent, squeezed it dry, and placed it in the pot filled with water and dye stock (I’m using Crabapple). I was dyeing approximately 100g of roving so I used a teaspoon of dye. The package says 12-26gms/or half an ounce of dye to 100g, but I don’t have scale that measures that small (note to self: get one), but in Jennifer Claydon’s book Spin * Dye * Stitch she mentions a teaspoon to 100g.
I turned on the burner. Slowly raised the heat to between 80-90 degrees celcius , and let it simmer.

The package says to heat for 30 minutes, so that’s what I did, and after 30 minutes this was what I had:

A perfectly exhausted dye bath. I left it to cool overnight, gave it a quick rinse (no dye ran out), and put it outside to dry.

The colour variations in the roving are on account that I did not stir the roving in the pot. I am always terrified of felting wool or fleece and tend not to handle it very much, I need to learn that I can (or at least, more than I do).
The finished roving, dried, braided and waiting to be spun.

Happy dyeing,
Kelly
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