I have been looking at my dye bottles for a long time and finally decided to have a go. I don’t have a huge fibre stash but I had a fair amount of white Shetland. I was hesitant to play with it, because the fibre was lovely as white and I was afraid of spoiling it. Anyway I pushed away the annoying and persistent what-if voice and calmly proceeded. Ok, so maybe these are not what I was aiming at but all in all I am very happy with them.
My greatest concern was that I would felt these fibres in the process and I did not, so that is one thing to be grateful about. Then I took out some merino. And maybe I went a little overboard with it. 
I was the one who was claiming few weeks ago how tired I am of all these variegated yarns and then I did this. I am having mixed feelings. But there are few spots that I truly like, like this one.
Probably this was inevitable, I had to push the limits, but I think I will return to more refined colour scheme. Well, yes, more dyeing in the vicinity. And spinning. And knitting. I have lovely Zetor on the needles. No matter where I look, there is wool just around the corner.Lene
PS. Thank you for all your comments! It would be too soon to write up a pattern for the hat... the whole process was more like a happy accident - although I did thorough preparations - and I need to work a bit more on the fulling to be able to give directions for happy endings.
Lene, your dyed fibre is gorgeous! You do know one of the lovely things about spinning these sort of dyed rovings is as you do a bit of drafting you're constantly blending the colours and coming up with more and I love that part. So very entertaining!
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link to Zetor, what a lovely shawl!
I hope the hat 'recipe' works out and that we'll see it at some point.
I had to giggle about you and your drum carder perhaps taking some time for 'staring' at one another, I had my spinning wheel for close to a year before I sat down to spin.
Your rovings turned out very beautiful. Thanks for all your lovely work.
ReplyDeleteThe colors are really beautiful. You may want to look at the sockpron blog and smatterings, they may interest you (they have arounsed my interest in spinning). There is a wonderful dye blog by a marvelous Finnish woman - she dyes with plants and it is fascinating her blog is Riihivilla, she had detailed explanations about her dye experience. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYou must step out beyond your limits in order to discover where they are.
ReplyDeletelovely dyeing! even if you don't like some of them... you never really know what they're going to spin up like. it's a fabulous surprise. i find that i like them more often than not after they're spun.
ReplyDeleteLene, thank you for the link to Zetor. I've added it to my queue on Ravelry. And I love the results of your dye-fest, particularly those first three colors that you're not so sure about.
ReplyDeleteI REALLY love all your colours. And I must also say, that depending on how you are spinning your fibres, the yarn can be more or less colourful and "wild". But just drafting the fibres before spinning will mix the colours a bit and make it all a bit less wild.
ReplyDeleteKind regards from Karin in Denmark
Oh, but these are so beautiful!!! I've been dyeing quite a bit lately, myself. The house is strewn with drying lengths of wool!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you very much for inspiring me to start blogging.
Lene, you did a fabulous job!!! I especially like the last one - looks like a garden of flowers against a blue sky. I haven't dyed roving - I, too, am scared of felting it. I will have to try it. You will love your drum carder!! It will fun experimenting with blending different fibers and colors.
ReplyDeleteThe fibers are good enough to eat! Snaps to you at your dyeing success! It is addictive, no?
ReplyDeleteYou are so industrious! Good luck spinning your wonderful colours. Thank you for the lovely link to the Zetor...so much fun to find yet another talented lady and her work, merci!
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing off your dyed rovings, they're wonderful. It looks like you are in a red mood, while my dyeing this past weekend has been about green.
ReplyDeleteI love the richness of the oranges and pinks. I know what you mean about that stretch of pale blue, so calming.
ReplyDeleteI would pay good money for any of those rovings if I found them for sale at a wool festival! The autumnal orange ones are absolutely breathtaking! But I like the wild, many-colored one, too. When drafted, spun, and plied, I think it will make a beautifully heathery yarn.
ReplyDeleteoooo...pretty!
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