Dying Yarn

Well it is at the end of another year. In the past I would take the time out to reflect back on the year and see what happened, what went wrong, what goals did I meet, and what goals still need to be worked on. Then there is looking at the new year ahead and I would ask myself what goals would I like to accomplish, what would I like to do within that year, and if there are any specific changes to be met within the next year.

Because of the craziness of loosing my job and life happening in general, I lost the momentum of seeing what I could do within the year that I've never did before. So I am starting that again. When I look back at this year to see what I got to do new I did accomplish some things. I got to enter into a couple of county fairs and festivals, I went to a couple of free sponsored festivals I've never been to before, I had the opportunity to teach more and especially at one of the festivals (North Jersey Fiber Festival), and as you can see below I got to try yarn dyeing for the first time.


I had a fun time at a workshop sponsored by the Shore Fiber Arts Guild. The workshop was on dyeing yarn. I had heard people talk about dyeing yarn but I never tried it myself. Well, it was time to try it and see what all the hype was about. After arriving at the home of one of the guild members that was hosting the event, I started getting excited about learning the process. Everything is a process. Everything was set up and ready for us to go.

I started with cotton yarn. I didn't know it had to be washed first. So I used something to wrap the yarn around to release it from a rolled up ball. The excitement started to rise. First, I had to wash it in some Woolite then rinse, rinse, and more rinse. If you've used Woolite you know even a drop can make a lot of suds. I put a little more than I should have because I was naturally thinking of regular detergent since I haven't used Woolite in a long while. After getting the soap out it was time to lay it out and see what I could do with it.

The guild member that was hosting the workshop was so kind as to mix the chemicals for us and get them ready for us to take a go at it. I had two balls of yarn and so I figured I would do a solid and that would mean to dump it in the color. The other I would paint different colors on so I could have a little variegated goin through it. That was a fun day. Not only because someone else did the work of mixing those strong chemicals so it freed us up to play, play, play but because we had a group of guild members that got together to do something we had not had a chance to do before.

How about yourself? If you did not have the opportunity to do something new then there is a chance in a couple of months to take a go at it. Of course you don't have to wait until then you can do it today. But have fun planning and expanding.