Ice dyeing wool roving

[jexxican]

So inspired by all you lovely ladies that dye with snow and stuff I thought I would take a chance and experiment with some ice. Basically I mixed up some Easter egg dye tablets with water and vinegar, not using real measurements, froze it in ice cube trays, smashed it with a hammer, spread it on some white vinegar/water soaked wool,

and shoved it all in the oven on cookie trays! Yay!

For color patterns I decided to do compliments.


So first we had the yellow and purple in which the purple fractured into pink and blue. It was interesting: the pink stayed on top of the wool and the blue soaked through and mixed with the yellow so it kind of looks like vomit.

ETA: Spun, ~140 yards, N-ply:

Didn't like it so I froze more dye, piled it all on a cookie sheet again... (notice I didn't smash the ice this time)

And came out with this:

I like how the purple fracture on this one, the spots where the cubes were are more pink/magenta in the middle and blue on the outside. Very cool.

At the same time I put in the blue/orange. It kind of came out looking a little vomitous and sparse as well.

ETA: All spun up and not too putrid. I think I like it subtle. ~122 yards, N-ply



At this point I was thinking of cutting my losses and just saving the fiber to overdye it later but, meh, I decided to do the pink/green because why the hell not. Love this one! I don't know why the dye spread better on this one. Maybe I didn't wring it out as much as the others? Maybe it was better wool? I used the Sheep Shed Punta on this one whereas the other 2 were just random bits from before Sheep Shed was selling their punta. I don't know.


ETA: Spun, ~150 yards, N-ply. I think I like this one subtle as well, but now I have 4 little pieces of Easter Egg dye left over that are going to float around my house and probably get lost after they accidentally dye a... something I don't want dyed.

I think I learned some stuff here.

Yay! I'm done! But now I want to keep mindlessly spinning. At one point during this my husband turned the lights off while I was spinning the Punta and I was able to keep spinning in the dark. That was cool!

[indigo_roses]

I love that one of your steps was to smash it with a hammer.

I think that I would probably overdye it, but that's because I'm a big fan of color.

[Belladune]

Cool experiment, Jexx! They look good!

[jexxican]

Thanks you guys!
I'm a big fan of color, too, but right now I'm thinking I want to see how this yarn turns out. Like I said, though, I can always dye it again after I spin it, right? The way I have see it, I have a lot of color and I should work out of my comfort zone.

That's my wall of handspun. I enjoy showing it off sometimes. See? Lots of color! should try something more subtle for a change, non?

[bunny1kenobi]

How fun, Jexxi!!  I like the last one, too, but I think you're right to spin it and see how it looks then. 

PS: I FREAKING LOVE that coppery colored stuff you do! gorgeous!

[LadybugsAndBumblebees]

I am absolutely drooling over your wall of handspun! 

[Abbeeroad]

Super cool ice dyeing! Definitely share pics after you spin some of it! I'd love to see the progression of this project

[jexxican]

You guys are so nice. I love my wall of handspun, too, but it got too heavy and one of the hooks ripped out of the wall again.

I updated the post with spun/overdyed pictures. They were all spun just mindlessly and N-plied because that's what I like to do. It was more about learning about the dying process than the spinning process.

[Abbeeroad]

Yay! Thanks for sharing your progress! The last one is my fave, too, I think. Love the subtlety.

Also digging the purple ice effect. I might have to try this frozen cubes of dye method.

[jexxican]

Abeeroad, DO IT!!! And then share the results with us, PLEEEEEASE!