Have you made a ginger merkin ?

A tale of dyeing

So my niece told me there were some fleeces up for grabs..

We collected them from Bath Cats and Dogs Home - SO sad seeing all the rescue pets! They had been donated them and didn't know what to do with them, so I gave them a donation whilst imagining the wonderful yarn I would hand dye, hand spin and knit into wonderful things..

So, the FILTHY sheep went for a bath..

and was washed and rinsed x about 15 times until..

it took over Verity's room for about a week to dry in all its fluffy glory!

Not quite sure what to do next and waiting to visit my friend Paula who knows about such things, I decided to 'research' natural dyes at home (by research I mean browse via Google then decide I have none of the kit and go ahead and make up my own rules)

There was a pretty golden yellow - turmeric and paprika - yummy !

(that washed out totally with rinsing)

So it got thrown into some darjeeling I found lurking at the back of a cupboard and boiled up a bit.

the boiling hot 'dye' was a mistake as it felted the fleece.. 

(I knew that would happen, I KNEW that *slaps own forehead)

tada! The ginger merkin! 

Although if you are reading this Mrs. Moth I am still wondering about the length of merkin you have/choose..

More dyeing adventures soon - with less filth.

auf Wiedersehen Imaginary Readers ! x