From this:
To this:
I call that a successful few days’ work.
Tangled threads
Category: hand dyes
Fabrics and threads
The shop is now stocked with a selection of hand-dyed fabrics and threads. There will be more at some point – lots more, if I ever get to give up the day job…
To dye for
I had a few days off from the day job this week so at last had time to dye some fabric and thread. This has been on the to-do list for months.
Some for me, and some for you, eventually. There will be a shop update when I can get round to sorting these into groups.
While I was waiting for everything to dry, I made a cover for the little notebook I use for dye notes. I made the book many years ago, when I first started having a go at dyeing. I don’t record everything in it, as most of my dyeing is quite intuitive so colours are often not repeatable. There are other dyers out there producing set lines but I prefer the more individual approach.
I really like the colour test card. Accidental abstract art in action, I’m calling it.
Back to sorting and labelling threads…
Colouring life
Difficult to concentrate on anything at the moment with all the conflict and trouble in Ukraine, so I rounded up everything that needed dyeing. It takes days to wind skeins of thread, dye fabric and thread, wash it, dry it, iron it, and unwind all the skeins, but it’s worth the effort.
Most of this is vintage linen/cotton, and the threads are mostly new and vintage crochet cottons. I find they work well as hand embroidery threads.
I prefer my threads wound into balls like this rather than wrapped onto thread cards. I don’t like the creases you get when you wind onto cardboard bobbins.
There is a lot of fabric here. There always seems to be more than I think there is, and it seems to last forever. This is a Good Thing. Some of it will find its way into the shop eventually.
It rained a lot today. I spent my lunch hour road-testing some of the threads while the frogs hopped around on the patio. I have plans for some new work, which I will start at some point. I still have a couple of ongoing things to finish first. I added this one to the shop this week:
It was originally the sleeve of a coat that I was never going to finish but then it took on a life of its own. It seemed to find its own time, as these things do.