"Red, as dark as possible"

While I was in the middle of cleaning and dyeing 0330, a dear friend called to say hi. Knowing that her birthday was coming up soon I asked her what color I should dye the next batch of fleece. "Red," she said, "As dark as possible." Oh my ... of all the colors there are, she picked one of the most difficult there is to achieve, or so I've been told. Not a problem ... 

So here's what I did: I dyed the fleece in layers starting with the chocolate brown. After all the dye had been absorbed from this first layer I added another layer of fleece and some water to the pot. Then came the cranberry dye ... waiting, waiting ... Then another layer of fleece and water and finally the turkey red dye ... still more waiting and waiting. After about 45 minutes of monitoring the temperature of the dye bath ... I decided it was good enough.

Wow, is this so great? I love the way this batch turned out. 

Now the real labor begins. With these two paddles I began to card small amounts of dyed fleece, blending the three colors only on occasion ... I really wanted a hand-dyed look here.

So, from my carding paddles comes these rolags that are now ready to be spun.

Note: The pink rolags are from the batch of pink fleece I showed in this post. I get bored carding just one color at a time.

And ... Here's the dark red fleece getting spun. (My favorite part of this entire process.)

And, here's a full spool of the pink fleece, spun and ready to be plied.

Stay tuned ... Just a few more steps before this yarn meets my knitting needles!

Comments

[Darcy]

I am enjoying learning about this process. The red turned out beautifully and the pink is yum! Thanks for sharing!

[donna!ee]

aahhh, blood red, always a good choice! ;)