Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Ut-oh

I should have know what a slippery slope this would be. First I had to have a knitting blog, and then I had to learn to spin, and now here I am with a drum carder in my garage and a crock-pot devoted to fiber dyeing. Crazy things happen when one gives up television.*




My first fiber from the dye-pot. Right now I'm experimenting with acid dyes. I've just been working with an arm's length of BLF at a time since I have little idea what I'm doing. This one was an attempt to get some of the colors of the evening sky. I used some straight blue, and some blue and red mixed to what looked like a nice lilac. The red seems to have become much more prominent after the heat setting process.


Same roving: From the dye-pot and predrafted.

I may try something like this again, but use less dye to get a more pastel effect. Right now I don't have a way to measure the dye easily, so my products are non-repeatable. It did occur to me that I could probably get some insulin syringes and use those to get a better idea of how much dye I am squirting around. Ah, good times.


*This is a book that probes how television affects us emotionally and relationally. Fair warning though, some of the explicit content means I personally won't be rereading it. The television issue is an interesting one for me. I'm not against TV, but I find that personally the temptation for escapism (without any of the redeeming qualities of say, escaping by reading Middlemarch) is too great.

1 comment:

Monika said...

Your evening sky colors came through great. I just saw a sky like that the other day! As a teenager I was the only one in the family not sitting on the couch watching TV, reading instead. I thought it was too boring and idiotic to sit and stare. When I had my two kids, and my husband came home only onthe weekends, we did not use the TV. I had so much fun doing stuff with my kids. When we moved to Canada, I could no longer keep it away, my husband wanted a TV, and the kids got used to watching it again. I never really liked watching TV. Sometimes to be with them I sit there and knit, but most of the time I'm not. If I don't watch I don't feel I miss out on something. I'm not against TV either, everybody should do what they want. :o)