Coffee...give me coffee!

I have 150 lbs of natural cotton for weaving. (DON'T ASK!...if you know anything about me at all....it is that I can get myself in the middle of a big mess without even trying!) So, on my last visit with my favorite fiber-terrific cousin, Liz, we were talking about fiber, as usual. She suggested that I might want to consider natural dyeing some of the cotton. Why not use something simple, like used tea bags or coffee grounds for staining? This really peaks my interest because I know that coffee will give the fiber an antique or aged effect.

Since I am not a tea drinker, I settle for my favorite pick-me-upper, coffee! Only problem is, since my thoughtful daughter gave me a Keurig for mother's day a few years ago, all I have are K-cups. So, I spend the end of each day for the next two weeks scraping out the grounds from tiny K cups until I have enough for a dye batch. I place them in a piece of cheesecloth that I had conveniently purchased just the week before, and set out on the coffee train. Choo, choo!!

I decide to stain enough cotton for 8 large dishtowels. I will need 240 total threads for the project. I very seldom run a whole warp at one time. I break it up into more manageable sections, so I decide on 6 groups of 40 threads each. With the dye pot prepared, I begin the process. Letting the cotton soak overnight, then replenishing it with another section the following morning to soak all day, it takes me a few days to get the entire lot completed. Checking my references on natural dyeing, I make note of the fact that the final color will be approximately two to three shades lighter when the fabric dries. After 4 days, the last section is ready to be removed from the dyepot this morning. Unfortunately, I am leaving for a short vacation tomorrow, so the weaving will have to wait until I get back. This photo shows the cotton before dyeing, completely dried and directly out of the dyepot. Pics of the completed project coming soon, I promise!

Dye Day With Friends

My fiber friends and I decided to have a dye day. What FUN! We did some natural dyeing and a bit of chemical dyeing. We had three pots on the stove steaming up coreopsis and dock, three crock pots crocking daylily and jars of acid dyes, a microwave waiting in the wings and before long there was beautifully colored yarns hanging in the trees drying in the wind. We totally confused the little hummingbird who was used to having the area all to itself. Poor little thing tried to enter the garage area to see what all the ruckus was about then decided against it and just sat in the tree watching all the commotion, chirping at us occasionally.

Since I do lots of natural dyeing, I decided to play in the chemical dyes. My first dye selection was some light brown romney handspun for socks. The 3 color jar method produced this gorgeous yarn. It amazed me that we were able to get the color sequence so close since one hank was dyed then set out to dry. After re-adjusting the colors, the 2nd hank was dipped into the jars. Boy, do I have friends with great abilities, or what?

After the jar method, we added color to the crock pot and used the ball method (don't ask, just enjoy). My selection was handspun mohair from Fairy Tale Farms in Texas (hi Darlene!) It was originally a gorgeous natural white color, but I had visions of a lacy scarf in muted variegations. Into the pot and this is what came out. Lovely as it is, screaming pink just isn't my color, so the plans are to overdye it using the same method, but this time changing the color. I'll let you know what happens!

And my final entry of the day was a method I'd heard of but had never tried. I machine knitted solid colored sock yarn and then handpainted it. Since the knitting machine decided to be temperamental and broke my yarn after 118 rows, I decide to dye that piece in a solid color for the ribbing, heel flap and toes on my soon-to-be-socks. I am now going to unravel the yarn and hand knit it. These tootsie certainly won't be identical, but shoots, who cares.

Boy, now I have a lot of knitting to do, but tell me.....what girl can't use another pair (or two) of socks?