Lots to Do this Spring, Dying Wool and more Rennovations

Update on a new project that Nancy is starting. Several photos of a family pet are being used to custom dye the various shades of wool needed.  I will post an update on this portait next time she brings it in for viewing.

More and more wool to be dyed this spring.

busy with the new in-floor heat kit going into the second bathroom. The electrician forgot to install the wiring for this heat kit so it had to be installed after the fact,  disconnecting the baseboard heater and cutting holes in the wall. and then of course foam insulation again.

Beside the kettle to boil my dye water you will see the piles of tools that are being used to rennovate my bathroom.

Insulation is a wonderful product if your not the person that has to install it.  And guess who was nominated to do that job 'me'  I survived and the sheetrock is now on also. Notice the path to reach the wool bolt on the shelf -- little fancy foot work to get around in this room.

Fun and Games

Transitional Dying Fun and Games this week, I was not really concerned as much about the colors as the technique, so in saying that I threw in several layers of stripes from the mismatches ends box.

Each of these pieces is a different color : blue, soft pink, two pieces of red dipped dyes, natural, and camel herringbone, tan and beige .



Second night of fun was using these recycled pieces below to bleed into my natural Dorr stripes, the brightest colors of wool are lower quality wool that I would only cut by hand 'but' they are awesome colors to re-dye my natural and light camel herringbone.


Colors start to bleed through in the first 15 minutes on this is my second Transitional Dying project.


Final project, I think these are nice soft colors for Easter.

Three New Colors for my Wool Collection

And the wool addiction continues, my newest colors right off the drying rack - Sweet Lilac, a Dark Dark Oceany Blue, and another shade of Sea Green with reddish speck.

I'm hoping to sketch my Seascape today I can finally envision my pattern and that is the hardest part. It's not going to be elaborate a waterfront scene with a small old Dory Boat docked and the foliage along the waters edge. I'm still unsure if there will be any people, animals or buildings on the waterfront, but I'm refusing to copy off any pattern.

This is a little angel we saved this week, this is the only reason I tolerate the 2 legged creatures.

When I look into Leia's puppy eyes this 10 week old puppy who was saved with 2 other of her litter mates, her mother died shortly after giving birth as there was still one puppy inside her with the owners unknowing. Leia and the other 2 puppies that didn't die just after birth as some of the others because of the neglectful ownership having been saved being bottle feed from 5 weeks old at the LA Animal Shelter and are off to new loving homes.

Marbleized Wool

I did my first Marbleizing project this weekend, my colors are not as nice as Gene Shepherd's but they will do. I'm definitely putting yellow and teal in my next Dorr Order.

These are also two new colors I dyed this weekend. They are both greens, the one of the right is a blue / green more for an ocean scene and the left is a grassy green.

This is the order that came in this week, you should have seen the two of us getting this from the post office in a shopping cart into the car, I think they should invest in handles.

Hot out of the Pan

New Colors this week, this is the pot full of wool with the 4 different colors marrying together.



These are two end results from the dye bath, sort of a Santa Fe look.

Out of the Jungle

Just dyed a new color today, I Love it!! It reminds me of Jungle leaves what do you guys think?


This is my newest blue I dyed today also. I don't have a name for it yet either.





The Highland Hookers is one of the RHD groups this is a pic from last Tuesday night's Hook-In remember girls there is a new location this week!!

I slipped into the Dark Side this weekend

This is a new interesting color for the shop, it is a custom dyed color for the circle of a sunflower pattern, it doesn't show easily on the screen but the color is dark brown with black mottled.

One of my other projects this weekend was putting drywall on in the basement my future wool hiding place. We put a few more sheets on and I have hired help coming tomorrow to speed this process up.

Litte Bit of Facial Tone

Update from the Dye Pot

Dying Facial Tones this week - I put a dark yellow / brown on the end to show the ligher shading of the Facial Tones. The wool background in the middle is the lightest piece and the piece of wool farthest away has some abrushing to create the shadows and contours of the face or body as needed.

New Colors to Start the Week

Few of my new colors to start the week.

A quiet Saturday Night at home

Don't get me wrong.......

I love company as much as the next person but tonight I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. My day started after the 2 small children and the large child went off to do their thing. I have been sick for several weeks if you've noticed the minimum number of blogs.

With the sun shining every so brightly it showed the dust and dirt of the house and myself being the only human creature of the house whom sees the dirt or is troubled by the sight of it I took to cleaning for several hours. I put the self cleaning oven on and opened the windows. I received as a gift an H2O Steam Mop last year for Christmas and what a rig as my whole house is hardwood floors. I wanted to sanitize my surroundings with all though germs that had been floating in the air.

After my sense of accomplishment it was onto ironing all my new wool colors and dying some others. Mom is doing a Christmas sock pattern class on Wednesday and she has a list of colors for me to have done. These are some of the basic colors I've dyed this week. I'll blog the crazier colors next.

Bright Colors of the Week

Thought I'd share one of my dye projects this week, bright as bright can be. I have to re-dye this one already as it's be sold.

Tuesday night was my first night with the Highland Hookers this forum works for me because it forces me to hook and I already learn one new hooking technique. I was the only lady in the room hooking larger than a #5 and most people were hooking Christmas Socks.


This is my newest green for the week not sure the photo does it justice.

New and Improved Brown Color

I dyed a new color brown this Sunday past it was drying on the clothesline so I couldn't show it till now as I was away Monday and Tuesday.

The color on the far right side of the photo is our # 9 Golden Tan Light and the other pieces of wool are my new brown color, it doesn't have a name yet, I used the same base formula with a double abrushing of Redness Brown.

Off to bed now with my hateful 2 layer rug project.

Exact - in Wool Dying ?

This is the Dictionary description for EXACT:

–adjective , strictly accurate or correct: an exact likeness; an exact description

look at this picture now.....




look closely...

the top is a different shade than the bottom! well of course it is.... it's from a different bath bath.

I have to vent here... I love it when people buy wool and put every last strip of wool in, come back ask for more wool. I put a new dye bath on and I guess me not being as skilled in the absolutely positively exact shade they complain (in a nice way).

Anyone that has dyed wool will know the the problem areas, just few more grains of dye the measuring spoon is not holding the exact amount, the amount of water for mix, the amount of chlorine in the water that week (thanks Ben) I will try to re-dye this but at the end of the day better area measuring on their part or not using every last strip before coming back would be a better option. We will probably pull some strips and help her move it around. To my knowledge that is the only solution I may have to work with.

If anyone else has had this problem and would like to share I would appreciate it.

My Beautiful Mistake

Remember the Leafy Green gone bad ? supposed to be Sage Green! well I re-dyed the Sage Green today (on my lunch hour) and my beautiful mistake is dry and ready to be ironed. I threw two small amounts of leftover blues and a red on my Leafy Green formula. Should be interested to see it cut in strips.

Another Green but not right yet.

Thank You to my Blogger friends for helping me name these 2 new wool colors I'm going to be using both names. I think the wool background in the top of the photo will be Smoky Turquoise and the bottom of photo Storm at Sea.

I'm back to the boiling pot again to try another shade of green just a little bit lighter and a little less abrushing this time, I guess I over did it.

Green, can someone help me name this one?

OK this is not the shade of Sage Green I need, going to try again tonight.

It's a nice color but I'll have to try again. What color would you name this? Below photo it is soaking in the pan.

Majic Carpet Dyes

Why do I use Majic Carpet Dyes?

Majic Carpet Dyes are safe non-toxic dyes, used as a food colourant, colour intense and are accepted back into the environment causing no imbalance

Next Project for a Friend

I have to dye the wool for the background of this picture, should be a good weekend project.

Cranberries anyone

Check out this Cranberry Red swatch, I've been playing with my new camera so I'm hoping to product better images, Looks like cranberry to me anyway; Color Expert are you out there? Buy on E-Bay

Red as Red - more Red

Another little weekend project, some bright red 1/8 yards