Glass Onion Bead Company : A Great Day to Dye

It was a beautiful day today. A great day to dye wool roving. Not too hot, with a nice breeze to help dry the dripping wool. It's quite a process, at least how I do it, anyway. I start by getting my ketchup squirt bottles out and lots and lots of newspaper.

I use permanent acid dyes because I prefer the bright, beautiful colors. There are so many colors to choose from. Sometimes I measure the powders precisely and sometimes I mix up my own colors, flying by the seat of my pants.

I used to dye my roving in a kettle on the stove. But after much trial and error, I have found the way I like best is the microwave technique. You can control the color and patterns so much better using this method.

I start by soaking the roving in lukewarm, soapy water. After gently squeezing the excess water out, I lay it on sheets of plastic wrap.

I carefully squeeze the dyes on the wet roving, letting it soak through to the bottom and gently roll the plastic wrap up almost like making a jelly roll. I try to think about the color wheel when placing the colors but I get bored easily. Sometime I pick a random number in my head, like a phone number, and that is the colors I use. I have the bottles lined up on the table so I can pick from the 35 bottles/corresponding number. I know...strange. But sometimes I get really cool color combinations that Mr. Nelson, my old high school art teacher, would be proud of.

So, once the wet wool is rolled up, it is placed in a microwave dish and nuked for 12 to 15 minutes. I usually dye anyway from 4 to 8 ounces at a time. After it comes out, I let it cool and rinse any excess dye out until the warm water runs clear.

Next step, hang it out to dry! You really should try not to squeeze it too much because the roving could start felting and then it's really hard to spin. I love to see the lines of beautiful color, blowing in the wind. One of the strangest things that happen, was once when I was dying roving at my cottage. I had the wrought iron patio furniture on the deck and I was laying the wet wool over it. I had made a deep red and pink batch and placed it outside to dry. Not too long after, a big turkey vulture swooped down to pick up the red wool. I'm sure he thought it was fresh road kill. Ewwwwww.