Cat Hat and more dyed wool

Being a spinner, I used to wonder what it would be like to make something using dog or cat fur but for a long time I had no source.  Last year, a friend of mine gave me a bag of her cat's fur--I believe it is a Maine Coon cat.  Anyhow, this Summer I finally got around to carding it with some wool and silk (there is probably about 20% cat fur in it??) and spun it up.  There were some obvious white sections of fur which I saved out so I ended up with a grey heathery color and white.  The carder I used wasn't "fine" so the bats were a little textured and then so was the yarn.  I knit up a hat and here it is:

There was a little extra grey yarn but I used all the white.  It was a worthwhile experiment, but I won't repeat it with cat.  My husband is very allergic and I had to do all the carding and spinning away from home.  I knit it while he was out of town and vacuumed my place on the couch afterward.  I have made a couple of things with my dog's fur, and I will continue to do that!  I got her last Fall.  Her name is Sadie and she's a retriever mix.  Check back a few posts to see a pic of her.  She's darn cute!

Not long before knitting up this hat, I did some more dye exploration and dyed up the rest of my Suffolk wool.  One color way is greens and yellow-greens, the other is greens and blue-greens.  I like the results.

I'm getting into this dyeing thing...I'm sure there will be more!

Instructions to Dye For

I recently participated in a "Fleece to Scarf" competition and dared to volunteer to dye the fleece beforehand.  I had not dyed too many things and couldn't even find the directions I got in a class I had a couple of years ago.  No problem, I thought, I'll look on line, there are bound to be a gazillion directions out there.  Well, I found plenty of vague instructions, but not "complete" ones that included ALL the steps with ALL the measurements for the type of dying I wanted to do.  I wanted to do crock pot or "low immersion" dying in a pot on the stove with dye in liquid form, verses powder.  Lots of people seemed to be doing it, but I couldn't find a set of instructions with all the measurements I wanted.  So, I combined all the bits I found on the various sites and made up my own recipe.  I took lots of photos to document it and I hope I can recount it all here for my own sake as well as for others looking for complete instructions.

Step 1: Soak fleece (or yarn or roving) for at lease 30 min. in a large plastic 5 gal bucket using the following quantities:

8 oz clean fleece 2 gal room temp water 1/2 t Synthropol

Step 2: While fleece is soaking, mix up some dye stock solutions

1.5 t dye powder 1 Cup hot water

• I used Prochemical Acid Dyes but probably any acid dye will work
  
• wear mask and rubber/vinyl gloves and do outside
  
• use containers and measuring cups and spoons that you will NEVER use for food again
  
• measure out 1.5t of dye and put in glass jar
  
• slowly pour 1 Cup hot water (I heated some in a tea pot) into the jar with the dye and stir thoroughly
  
• I mixed up three jars of stock solution: one each of red, blue and yellow. I labeled each jar with the names, quantities and the date I mixed them using painters tape and a permanent marker.
  

Step 3: Mix up specific dye colors and dilute with water

• I didn't initially know how much of each dye color and how much water I would need, so I used medicine syringes and kept tallies on note papers (one tally mark for 10ml of liquid)
  
• I used plastic squeeze bottles for this so I could aim my dye where I wanted it later on
  
• I used hot water from my tea pot poured into a dye-designated measuring cup to dilute the dye with—good idea since the blue dye gets gel-like as it cools
  
• I mixed up a medium blue color, a purplish-blue and a green-ish blue with a monochromatic color scheme in mind
  
• I put painters tape on each squeeze bottle with my final dye to water ratios to document my colors for future reference
  
• here is a summary of the dye stock(s):water ratios for the colors I created...
  

  Bright Blue (#440) 90ml dye stock:250ml water

  Blue (#440)/Red (#366) 60ml blue:30ml red:250 water

  Blue (#440)/Yellow (#119) 70ml blue:20 ml yellow:250ml water

  
  
• I tested my colors by dipping a gloved finger in each mixture and dabbed it on a paper towel. It's not completely accurate as the colors change some throughout the process, but it gives you an idea of how your colors compare with one another.
  

Step 4: Mix acid solution in dye pot

• Use a pot that you will NEVER use for food (stainless steal or enameled pot with NO rust)
  
• Here is the recipe I used for the dye pot:
  

  5qt water (room temp) ½ T salt ½ T citric acid crystals (3/8 C vinegar would work too) ½ t Synthropol

• Put the water in first, measure and add each ingredient and stir with designated dye spoon until everything is mixed and dissolved.
  

Step 5: Apply dye to fleece

• Drain fleece carefully without agitation so as not to felt it.
  
• Place wet fleece carefully into acid solution in dye pot and gently push down with dye spoon or gloved hands—you may want to do this in layers so the dye is sure to get to the fleece at bottom
  
• Squirt desired quantities of dye solutions on wool. For this step, you may want to layer the fleece or use a spoon to gently push on the wool to get the dye to the bottom level. The dye will travel and mix some, which is part of the fun. I squirted some blue in the middle and each of the mixes on either side.
  
• The more dye you use, the more intense the colors will be and the less white areas you will end up with in your fleece. For each batch of 8oz of fleece I used about ½ of a bottle (about 180ml dye solution). A little dye seemed to go a LONG way!
  

Step 6: “Cook” your wool

• Put the lid on your pot.
  
• Turn on the stove to a med-high heat until the water is almost boiling (it starts to make that funny sound from the bottom of the pot) and turn it down to a low-med heat setting. You can look up temperatures on line if you want to know that. I never measured the temp but just kept the pot at kind of a low simmer.
  
• Keep the lid on the pot to keep heat constant and cook for 1 to 2 hours until you see that the dye is exhausted—the wool will be colored and the water around it will be clear.
  
• Turn off the heat, remove the pot from the burner and take off the lid.
  
• Allow wool to cool to room temp or close to it.
  

Step 7: Rinse/wash/dry wool

• Carefully drain wool.
  
• Gently place wool in room temp water with just a dab of Dawn dish detergent in it and leave for at least 20 min. Carefully drain.
  
• Gently place wool in room temp water with a splash of vinegar and leave for at least 20 min. Carefully drain.
  
• Optional: lay wet wool on a couple of towels. Place a towel or two on top and carefully walk on them to squeeze out excess water.
  
• Gently spread out your newly colored wool on a drying rack or dry towels and wait 1-3 days until completely dry.
  

You did it! You now have some really fabulously colored wool! If you don't like your colors as much as you'd hoped, let it grow on you, card it with some other wool, give it away or dye it again!

Go for it!  Take chances!  Have fun!  What are you waiting for???

Thanks for visiting!

Seven Sashes for Widgiwagon!

It's the time of year when groups of high school age kids embark on a 6 week canoe trek in northern MN and Canada like voyageurs past.  This year I accepted a commission to weave seven sashes for such a group.  What on earth are voyageur sashes for?  And where did they come from?  The following is a quote from this url:
http://www.tfo.org/emissions/rendezvousvoyageur/en/world/personallife/clothing.html

"The sash is essential to the voyageur's clothing kit. Other than holding his coat closed around the waist, historians also believe the sash provided back support during portages.
Many theories exist about its origins. The most probable is that it came from Native peoples, from the Great Lakes region or the Assomption area of Quebec."

And from: http://www.hoosierhandweaving.com/Hoosier_Handweaving/About_%22Voyageur%22_sashes.html

''In the 1700s and 1800s, both French voyageurs and Native Americans enjoyed wearing colorful sashes and garters for both practical and ceremonial occasions. They are known by many names: voyageur, metis (hear it inFrench) (hear it in English), Red River, Hudson's Bay, and L'Assomption sashes. The men wore them by wrapping them twice around their waists. Voyageur sashes could also be slung around the forehead to support packages being carried. In addition to their own use, voyageur sashes were also traded for pelts."

The original voyageur sashes were finger woven, but I opted to use a twill pattern on my floor loom--otherwise the trekkers from Widgiwagon would be getting their sashes in the year 2023!

The head of the group I wove sashes for picked out the colors of the wool yarn (Harrisville Highland) and suggested that the iris would represent water (lakes, rivers), the magenta would represent the landscape and the gold would represent the sun.  Accordingly, I created a design for each of the colors to match those themes.  Here is the result:

Here is my draft--created by me on pixeLoom.

Here is my loom all warped and ready to go!

Here is scarf #3 or #4 from my second warp.  I wove the sashes in two sections: the first was three sashes long, the second was four sashes long.  You can see how large the roll of fabric is down by my knees.

Here are two completely woven sashes.  The one on the left has been washed and fulled a little bit, the one on the right has not.  Notice the difference in length and the subtle difference in the design.  Fulling it makes it a more sturdy fabric and gives it a softer feel.

I think they turned out rather nice.  I hope the "voyageurs" from Widgiwagon enjoy them.










Weaving notes for future reference:
Colors of Harrisville: one cone Iris, two cones Magenta, two cones Gold (warp) and five cones Silver Mist (weft) for 10 cones total.  I ended up with an extra cone of silver mist.
epi: 10
ppi: 10
width in reed: 10" with 101 ends
final width after fulling: 8.5"
I marked the sections by tying a short piece of thread around the gold yarn on the outside.   Each section was at least 9'5" or 113" long and I left 10.5" on each for fringe.
I warped my loom twice--3 sashes in the first lot and 4 in the next..
The final length after fulling was approximately 86":  80" of woven material and 6" of fringe on each end.
Fringes: I twisted grouping of 3+3 except for one grouping which was 3+2.
Fulling: I washed them vigorously in hot soapy water and also alternated some with cold water baths with some intervals of throwing them on the tub floor.  Very exhausting!

Final words: It was a good experience and I learned a lot, though it took MUCH longer that I originally thought it would.

Flash Back to Spring 2012

I can't reveal my latest project because it include belated Christmas presents that haven't been finished or presented yet.  Instead, I'll flash back to Spring of 2012...

Madeline,  lovely woman at the WGM had offered to be a mentor to me and teach me the ins and outs of weaving on a floor loom.  So, in a mad dash before my kids were done with school, I rented a loom at the guild for 2 weeks and under Madeline's generous tutelage created 3 woven items.  The first was a plain weave scarf with three colors of Harrisville wool that was kind of a large green and blue plaid.  (photo is a little wonky because I cropped it out of a photo of a group of items)

The second item I wove was a blue and yellow scarf with the same type of wool yarn using 4 shafts.  This one was featured in a HUGE picture on the outside of the guild this past Summer to inspire people to sign up for classes.  :)

My third and final project completed during those two weeks on the floor loom was woven on 8 shafts.  The warp is some of my hand spun (merino and silk--some of which was hand died and blended with commercially prepared fiber) and the weft was a commercial yarn that was some sort of wool/synthetic blend.  I played around a bit with my treadling on this last one.  :)

All in all I was very pleased with my work and very tired from late nights at the guild.  I'm so happy to have my very own floor loom now in my house.   :)