DIY Friday: Homemade Hackle Set

The Curly Bird Express is an awesome fiber arts blog I have come to love.

One of her recent posts featured a lovely tutorial about preparing Alpaca Locks.

It's a fantastic article. 

Anyone new to alpaca wools should read this post. 

One of the most interesting things I found was the homemade hackle set.

Again, congratulations to the people who came up with this wonderful idea.

You're truly out of the box thinkers. 

For that, I applaud you! 

Visit this LINK to make your own hackle.

Image borrowed from the This Land! blog.

Easy DIY & More

Here is a simple tutorial for homemade dryer balls: 

~ LINK ~

I love this tutorial because it includes different color top to brighten your laundry. 

You'll never really loose them in the dryer. 

~*~

While searching around today I found:

"Make and Takes is a popular parenting site sharing kids crafts, home projects, easy recipes, parenting tips, and more. New content is posted Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturday."
It looks like a great resource for everybody, even dads.
With the weekend upon us, this is a great place to do some fun things with your kids.


~*~

On Saturday, Peter and I will be going to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Festival.
It's going to be a lot of fun and fiber all in one place.
This year our pocket book is a little restricted, but there are plenty of people to talk to.
Emily from Bricolage Studios will be there!
Her spin-a-longs have been extremely fantastic.

~*~

Have a fantastic weekend!
<3

DIY Friday: Plying

This Friday I'm introducing two different plying techniques.
The first will be Navajo or chain plying.
Miss Brie of Bug & Nomad and Fall Creek Fibers has picked up this fantastic technique, and doing a great job with it!
This is the tutorial both of us have used to learn this technique.



The next technique is creating a coiled art yarn.
There are several ways to doing this.
However, I am intrigued by this particular method.



I hope you enjoy DIY Friday in all its glory!

DIY Friday...

it's a bit late. However, it's better late than never. 

Things have been a bit, bleh over the past week. All motivation was lost. 

But here I bring you my current dyeing process.

First, I soak the wool wrapped in bundles for 30 minutes in an acid pre-soak.

pre-soak - 1 gal. water to 6 tbsp vinegar to 2 tsp synthrapol

While I'm waiting for the soaking, dyes are mixed. 

The dyes are set aside to be cooled before pouring into 16 ounce squeeze bottles.

Next, I lay out 2 long pieces of plastic cling wrap down across the table. 

Each piece has to overlap by about 2 inches.  

When the timer dings and the roving is done in the pre-soak, they are gently squeezed or placed in my wonderful 'wuzzer' for a few seconds. 

Then it's laid out in a zigzag pattern on the plastic. 

Now to pour the dyes!

I add labels as to color and strength as the pouring goes along.

Now, to apply the dye. 

Usually I measure then record how many inches of a particular color I will dye in my record book. This way the colors are replicable. After applying dye to this side, the roving is flipped over and applied to the other side.

Next, excess dye is soaked up and the roving is rolled up into little bon bons. 

 

The bonbons are placed in a plastic tub as a method of drip free transport to the magic roaster oven. The oven is set @ 300 degrees Fahrenheit to create the necessary steam temperature in the magic roaster oven. Inside the two will sit on a pyrex plate for 45 minutes. In the mean time I keep dyeing more. 

Since, I do so much dyeing at once, the roaster never fully cools. Instead the bonbons are taken out and allowed to sit until they are cool to the touch. At that point they are rinsed in warm water for 2-3 minutes. They are then put in the 'wuzzer' for about 2-3 minutes, and hung up to dry. 

-The End-

Wasn't that a nice story. ;) 

Of course, I clean my counters very often and thoroughly. 

I use ammonia to cut through all the acid dyes on all surfaces.

It cuts through all of the chemicals in them to where 

everything can be used as a kitchen once more.

Here are other pictures of my workspace. 

Here are some tips I found helpful when working with this set up. 

1. Plastic is your friend! Use normal to heavy duty plastic coverings on all surfaces you do not want to get dye on. My apartment is primarily carpeting. UGH!
2. Use a thick clear shower curtain for your work table with a self-healing rotary cutting mat underneath. You will never need a ruler or sharpie again to gauge where color is needed. 
3. Perculators heat water really fast. I use mine to pour boiling water into a measuring cup away from the acid dyes. This way I can use it for regular use later. 
4. Ball canning jars make for excellent storage of unused dye stock. 
5. My favorite tool is the 'wuzzer'! It is a small laundry spin dryer. We don't have a washer dryer unit in our apartment that will allow me to skip straight to spin. It really has been the best investment in this whole process. There is less water mess, and it take less time for all my roving to dry. Hooray!

I'm going to be switching up my dye process this weekend to immersion dyeing. 

Tomorrow I need to visit the outlet mall to pick up two 20 QT pots.

This should be loads of fun. 

If I can get a large enough box for a mixing station, life will be grand!

Hope to see you back again soon.