Rainbows of Color

After a week of rain! So here's the fruits of my labor after screwing up my courage to actually dye wool roving for the first time ever... Its just a little intimidating when you spend money on this bunch of nice wool and you're terrified that all you will have to show for it is a giant dread lock. I also kept toying with the idea that I needed to do this on my stove or I needed a special Crockpot... (actually, a big Crockpot would be nice) Focus! Focus! Okay... so I after completing my research on YouTube. Thank you, new internet connection with unlimited bandwidth usage! Oh, my favorite ones are Rexene's Get Ready to Dye and Spin2weave's Dyeing to Spin Part #3... the first one is so funny and full of practical advice. She showed me that I don't need a huge space to work in. The latter video showed me that I can just heat my wool up in the microwave without burning it. I also looked at countless other videos many of which are for kettle dyeing or yarn dyeing and not hand painting... and some folks well its kind to say they are a yawn a minute. I also figured out what I'm did wrong pretty fast. Well, wrong.. its not exactly wrong, undesirable maybe.. but this wool is mostly earmarked for my nuno felting so I then dyed it to compliment the silk I dyed earlier...

I started this whole thing Sunday and it felt like I wasn't getting a bunch done. I was also fighting the holiday languor. It's mostly waiting. Waiting for the wool to pre-soak, then waiting for the wool to cool, and then finally waiting for the wool to dry and see how it turned out. Hoping that some where that mass of soggy fiber there's artistry and beauty. There's also making the dye baths... realizing that I need way bigger squeeze bottles, improvising with solo cups... forgetting to wear my gloves and ending up with red hands...(my fingernails are still orange) oh, and the actual dyeing. Then today I hung all I've finished up next to each other and thought, thats not too bad for a start...

I like rainbows.. Promises and hope.