Playing with Dyes

Today for something a little different, I'm doing a blog tutuorial. Backwards. The reason for this is two-fold - firstly, because I kinda forgot how uploading photos to blogger works in weird ways. Secondly, because I'm blogging on the netbook since the desktop died and dropping and dragging pictures into the right order is basically impossible unless you resize them all to tiny first, then make them big again afterwards. 10 inch screens have their limitations.
Last week I thought I'd try my hand at dyeing some roving. Having done loads of tie-dying with hemp and cotton clothing and fabric, and quite a bit of dyeing with basic fleeces and batts and yarn, I thought it was about time to branch out.
I had always been a bit scared of trying to dye commercial rovings, due to not wanting to felt them. So I had put off the whole exercise.
Here you can see some of the finished 200g braids - Polwarth so far. This particular colourway was invented by a friend who came along to help out. She's one clever cookie.

This batch (below) is merino. I have a thing for violet/purple/teal/pink colourways even though I would never wear them. They pop up in my dyeing without me even thinking about it.

This is how I dry my rovings/yarn/anything. It's a basic two layer sweater drying rack I picked up years ago.

Rovings still in their plastic wrap, in the sink cooling slowly, ready for rinsing.
What the rolled-up bundles look like in my steamer on the stove.
I hope to get an electric steamer for my studio so I can dye out there. The rolls steamed for about 30 minutes.
A bundle waiting to go in the steamer.
My dyeing table set up under the back verandah. The soaked rovings are laid out in strips and hand-painted with Ashford dyes.
I actually mixed up standard solutions, combined them in pre-measured amounts, and (shock horror) WROTE IT ALL DOWN THIS TIME!
Undyed wet roving waiting for the colour saturation.

The table, all set up and looking disturbingly organised. You can see a roll of clingfilm (for wrapping rovings in to steam) a box of disposable gloves, the pots of dye, a couple of baskets for putting things in, a large bowl containing slightly soapy water, vinegar, and the first batch of roving, and some measuring cups and spoons. And the incredible notebook.
So there you have it, my backwards blog of dyeing. I'm very happy with how the rovings turned out in the end - they are not as felted up as I thought they might be when they were drying.