Project Romney + Dyeing Day!

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down with some of Romney (still undyed, but let's not talk about that) to get a feel for how it would spin. Out of curiosity, I didn't predraft like I usually do, but instead just split the roving a couple of times lengthwise so that the fiber mass would be easier to handle. The results?

It spins FAST. So fast, in fact, that I was so involved in marveling at the speed of my spinning that I paid little attention to the weight of my yarn for the first half bobbin, happily using my extreme-lounge-long-draw approach to spin yarn at a remarkable rate. When I noticed that the single I was spinning would Navajo ply up to approximately telephone cable weight, I started thinning the single down. When I got to about fingering weight, I concentrated on that for the rest of the bobbin so that I'll be ready to spin my perfect sock yarn when I get to the real deal. The resulting yarn isn't nearly as scratchy as I thought it would be, though it is hairier than I expected. Next time, I'll pay attention to smoothing any errant fibers down into the twist as they head up to the orifice.

Yesterday's yarn was parrot approved.

That's my 6 year old White-capped Pionus, Oskar. He's fascinated with the wheel, and loves to sit on my knee while I spin. Occasionally he hops over to beak the yarn (as in the above photo), but mostly just he watches the wheel spin. The flash always washes out his colors, and since I'm a proud parrot mom, I'd be remiss not to show you a better photo.

Today was dyeing day, so as I type this, it is with multicolored fingers and permanently stained fingernails. I think it was worth it, though.


I'm not thrilled with most of these, and I have no idea what I was thinking using that fluorescent pink on everything. Well, I do have some idea... I mixed up all the dyes and painted everything, and then realized how insanely bright the pink was after all the rovings were rinsed. Oh well. Spinning should tone most of them down, and now I know only to use that particular dye when I'm feeling like a 1980s flashback.

There are 2 more that didn't make it into this photo, but neither of them turned out the way I had imagined, either, so I'm just hoping for an Ugly Duckling to Swan transformation after Miss Ashford works her magic. I usually dye either in the microwave or hot pour on the stovetop. Both of those methods have given me really good control when using contrasting or complementary colors of dye. Today, I tried to streamline dyeing days with oven dyeing. As I mentioned before, my estimation of the results is less than stellar. The dyes migrate a lot, and the color combinations I love best turned muddy and dark. The worst roving (one I was most excited about, sadly) looks like it will spin up to a yarn shaded with every color of brown.

Surely I know someone who would love a brown hat for Christmas...