My adventure with felting and dying wool began this week. I bought some wool from Jo-Ann Fabrics before it all disappeared and I also had some thrift wool jackets that I had deconstructed. It took a while to wash and dry of the wool and then cut it up into manageable pieces for dying. Somehow I ended up with a collection of Rit dye (I think it came from an auction and was part of a boxed lot) that I've wanted to experiment with for some time. As you can see one of the boxes is vintage and the rest are updated somewhat, but are still from a past decade.
I boiled the dye and water then added the wool. You could say that I cooked wool this week! The colors are tasty. Pastels, plaids and grungy rich wool!
I then rinsed and dried all of the wool again. I'm excited to use the plaids. I think they turned out to be quite rich and will make a wonderful background for my designs.
One thing I really liked about using Rit is that it's not toxic like some of the other dyes that you have to be a chemist to use. For my application the colors turned out the way I wanted. I may take some of the lighter colors and then overdye a little more to get a better mottled appearance.
It was a fun project and I will do it again, but I ended up with enough wool to last for quite a while. I should have taken a picture of the latex gloves that I wore --they were quite a sight!
One thing I really liked about using Rit is that it's not toxic like some of the other dyes that you have to be a chemist to use. For my application the colors turned out the way I wanted. I may take some of the lighter colors and then overdye a little more to get a better mottled appearance.
It was a fun project and I will do it again, but I ended up with enough wool to last for quite a while. I should have taken a picture of the latex gloves that I wore --they were quite a sight!
13 reviews:
wow those turned out great! i've thought about trying to dye my own! maybe i will! thanks for sharing!
ooh, I love the colors, all of them. Rose, where does your son live now? It's so very true, time goes by in the blink of an eye.
Sounds like fun. I love dying fabrics also. I have not done any dying in a long time. Your pieces came out nice.
They look great..Really lovely..I have never done that before, very interesting.
OMG! The colors are gorgeous Rose! Aren't you excited to use them?
That plaid looks really cool! I've tried dyeing wool yarn in the microwave with kool-aid, but you got a lot better colors. Mine all just ended up a lot of different and not coordinating reds.
Love the plaid colors!
Thanks all! I never thought about using kool-aide. Is it colorfast?
Nice colors!
You've been tagged!
http://hintjewelry.blogspot.com/
Wow, sounds like a lot of work. It was worth it, however. The colors are gorgeous.
Glad I could make you laugh today. We can always use a good laugh!
these all look great, how wonderful to do it yourself too
: )
I've always loved you work, and then saw you on Entrcard. Well, goodness, there's someone I want to drop on! Keep up the good work - you're an inspiration!
Hi, I was just looking around blog land and came across your pretty blog. I couldnt help notice the dust storm.. I thought she must be in AZ too. And sure enough. lol I am in Tempe.
I love what you did with the wool. Very pretty colors. I just wanted to say hello,,, happy creating, gail
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