Experiments

I mentioned a few posts back that I did a couple of experiments with the leftover Madder root. I reused the roots with a yarn from Henry's Attic called Licorice Twist and a rayon chenille yarn that has a metallic thread in it. Licorice Twist is a 4 ply Merino wool. Two of the plies are thinner and spun tighter than the other two so the smaller plies take up the dye more intensely giving a candy-striped dye effect. My book said that re-used Madder root gives terracotta colors and that is exactly what I got. Here is the Licorice Twist picture:

You can see the smaller ply stripe in the yarn. The rayon chenille was interesting to work with. The minute I put it in the room temperature water it the skein drew up onto itself until it was like a hard donut or bagel. It remained like that throughout the entire dye process and only relaxed a bit when it was dry. The yarn isn't the same as it was before getting it wet. It isn't a problem but it drew up so tightly that it actually acted as a resist in some areas so it gave an unexpected effect. I don't really like the terracotta color although I think the yarn is beautiful so I am going to overdye it with indigo when I get to that part. Here is the picture of the rayon chenille:
It is difficult to see the metallic thread in the picture but the yarn has a nice luster. The yarns are also much more pink looking in the picture. They are more on the terracotta shade in real life.
Today I got a batch of Logwood Purple in the dyepot. It was windy and the burners kept getting blown out so I didn't get to Logwood Grey. I will be giving the Cochineal extract another try next week. That will be the last dye I have listed to use the iron modifier on. When that is done I will have completed on of my categories! I am getting impatient to get to the color mixes. Soon! -Renee