What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Day Four

Today I slept in, after all I am on vacation.  Then I took a trip to Weaverville to go back to Echoview Fiber Mill.  I needed some more Greener Shades dye and am too impatient to wait for them to be shipped.  I love Asheville so it was a fun day.

 

 

I was pretty disciplined, buying only the dyes, a button and a needle felting kit.  I will be trying the needle felting later this week.

 

 

This is 100 grams of clean Jacob locks.

 

 

This is Greener Shades dyes in the River and Amethyst colors.  After a little research, I learned that to get a deep blue I needed to mix these two colors.  For a 100 grams of wool, I needed only 1 gram of dye.  My scale isn't calibrated fine enough for that minute amount so I used 1/4 teaspoon of the River and 1/8 of a teaspoon of the Amethyst.  After soaking the wool in warm water, I mixed the dye powder in some hot water and added it to my pot.  I stirred the pot to evenly distribute the dye and then placed the wet wool in the dye pot.

 

 

I brought the temperature up to 180 degrees and let it "cook" for 5 minutes.  I then added 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of citric acid to set the dye.  I turned the heat down to low for about an hour and then turned the burner off.  When I checked it a couple of hours later the water was clear.  Throughout the process I gently used a spatula (for dyeing only) to move the wool to ensure even coverage.  The plan is to let it cool tonight and remove it from the pot tomorrow and place it outside to dry.

 

My plan is to spin the colors of the Jacob wool separately and spin this blue and knit The Rectangle Vest.