Kids: What are you doing today, mom? Me: Dyeing!

But not literally. 

This summer, while the kids and I enjoy our break from school, I'm doing something I've wanted to do for ages - dye.

I have scads (yes, scads!) of natural undyed cotton hanging around from planned but not completed projects on the loom.  So, after discovering just how great Tulip Tie Dye is (soda ash is already mixed in!) I decided to turn my cones of cotton into skeins and dye them up!

There's a huge cone of fine cotton chenille I bought on eBay years ago that has been staring at me.  I had even skeined it off a few years ago with a plan...and then got busy.  Some of the chenille I have are colors that are muted and unloved due to their muted tones - like this salmon pink think...and one I lovingly call mushroom.  And don't forget my favorite - dingy green.  But I knew I could bring new life to these not-so-pretty colors and over dye them!

Yesterday I set up my table on the back deck and got dyeing!  I put on some tunes (Ruth Moody is my favorite right now) and rubber gloves and started painting skeins of cotton chenille,

Inspired by the folky tunes coming from my phone, I painted up some colorways that I really love.  One is blue/green/yellow, another is orange/voilet/red and one is even violet/green/blue. 

I'm doing FibreShare 2019 spring/summer edition and I wanted to do some skiens for my fibre share buddy who I send yarn to.  So those are a secret for a bit...but still, I'll share once I send them to her.

I also played with depth of shade.  I started with 100% strength dye.

Then I dilluted to 50% strength to see what would happen....

Then I dilluted that another 50%, to 25% strength (should be a pastel) and used up that on my last skein.  I didn't want to throw any dye down the drain, and I KNOW I have oodles of yarns that I can dye with fiber reactive dye...so that.

The product of a hard  fun morning's work:

I like to let my cotton yarns batch (rest) for 24 hours minimum - I find it helps with final color vividness.  I could have rinsed last night, but I saved it for today.  The result is a laundry rack of beauty.

Some sneak peeks

 (50% strength on cotton slub)

 (25% - pastels on natural)

 (50% - medium strength on natural)

 (100% - full strength on natural)

 (50% strength over dyed on dingy green)

 (50% strength on natural)

 (100% strength - overdyed on salmon pink)

(100% strength on natural)

What will I do with it all?  Well, I supposed I'll try and sell most.  I love to dye, but my stash cupboard is already full!  Maybe it will become gifts for my fibre friends!  Some I will keep.  I'll show you when it's dry just how lovely it is.

Thanks for stopping by.