white on white

I made a second weaving sample with my natural and dyed Finn (see the previous post):

Starting at the bottom of the photo, I have 10 natural, 10 dyed with lily of the valley leaves, 10 natural and 10 dyed warp threads. The weft, starting at the left, is 4 stripes each dyed, then  natural. Each stripe is approximately 15 threads.

The purpose of the sample was to see if the color change was more noticeable with wider stripes than my first sample. I would say yes, but it is not completely successful.While the changes in weft threads are easy to see (at least in person), the change in warp threads is not. The piece looks striped, not checked.

My first sample was 28 tpi warp and 14 tpi weft. This sample is almost the opposite - 12 tpi warp and 30 tpi weft. I think it might be easier to see the change in both directions if it was an even weave. However, I have run out of dyed thread, so I won't be able to make a third sample.

With these pieces I have learned that the spacing of the warp and weft can make a real difference to the look and feel of the final fabric. Also, with the more widely spaced warp threads I had no problem with the threads sticking together, as happens with closely spaced wool warp (and no sizing).

shades of white

Back in September I did a little bit of dying. The indigo dying worked quite well. The lily of the valley dying, not quite so much. There is very little difference between the natural wool and the dyed wool. I wanted to see if the difference would be more noticeable if the threads were woven into fabric. Here is my finished sample:

The warp starts with 4 doubled strands of natural Shetland wool, then Finn dyed with lily of the valley leaves. There are 4 natural Finn threads on each side of the indigo threads. The remainder is dyed Finn and natural Shetland. Beginning at the bottom of the photo, the weft is natural Finn, up to the pointer. It then switches to dyed Finn for the center of the weaving, and back to natural at the upper end.

I had hoped that where the threads were natural white in both directions the fabric would be brighter than where it was mixed dyed and natural, and where it is all dyed, that it would look creamier. In fact, that is the case. It is difficult to see, however, because the white stripe is only 4 threads wide. I should have used at least 8 threads for each stripe. The difference between mixed and all dyed is very subtle and difficult to notice except in bright sunlight.

I still have some dyed thread left. I think I will make another sample with wide white and cream checks. Maybe then there will be a noticeable difference.

Natural Dyes

Over Labor Day weekend, a group of us got together and experimented with natural dyes. Our first experiment was using indigo. I had spun some South Down lamb wool, Shetland, and Finn. I wanted to know if the breed made a difference for how much color was accepted. There was not much difference between the Shetland and Finn, but here is a picture of the South Down (on top) and the Finn (below):

Both hanks were in the dye bath at the same time, for the same amount of time (about 5 minutes). The lamb's wool took more color. I had not expected this. The first shearing vs later shearing made more of a difference than the breed (or at least the breeds I used).

Our second experiment was using lily of the valley leaves from my garden. We used alum as the mordant. We chopped and then simmered the leaves for about an hour. We kept the mordant separate, soaking the fibers in the mordant bath and then placing the wool in the dye bath. I had only Finn left to dye, but a friend had some lamb's wool. Once again, the lamb's wool accepted more color. Her wool came out a pale golden yellow (you'll have to trust me, I don't have a photo). Here is a picture of my wool:

The roving is undyed. As you can see, there is very little difference between that and the spun wool. It is barely off-white, even though it was left in the dye bath for a very long time. I don't feel like it was worth the effort. But it certainly brought home the point that lamb's wool is the easiest to dye.