Tools of the Trade

Decided to spend an afternoon in the Studio today, partly to escape a room full of blokes who had taken over my lounge to watch the rugby!  (It’s OK, I did know them!).

I use a range of techniques to dye – handpainting, dip dying, speckle dying – but my overall  favourite has to be kettle dying.  Essentially, the dye is applied to the yarn whilst in water a pot  and then heated until the dye sets and the water runs clear.  My portable induction hob and fish kettle get a lot of use.

Here is a pic from this afternoon, showing the colourway “Fireworks” in progress.  Skeins are partially pre-dyed with a deep black, and then dyed a second time with bright colours to fill in the blanks.  Love it!