dyeing with the elements

Since getting my loom back in the summer, its been interesting figuring out ways to dye my warps the way I did in the studios at MassArt.


My first dyeing was back in August, just some skeins (probably for weft) immersion dyed.


This is when I learned that there's no better place to dry yarn than a sunny deck railing.





After this, I decided it was time to really get back into things, and dye a warp direct application.

This was a 9 yard warp of rayon yarn, all stretched out on the driveway. It wove up great, (after getting it on the loom with the help of an old childrens encyclopedia set...) but dyeing it on the ground got to be a little annoying.

For my next warp, I decided I needed to lift it off of the ground to make things easier for my knees. This week, I dyed a 12 yard warp, again on the driveway. I figured I should take advantage of this great weather while it lasts. If we get another freak snow storm I'll be doing this in the garage.


This time, I lifted the warp up by using saw horses with raddles tied to each of them to keep the warp spread out. The raddles were great, but even using the saw horses I was bending over too much. Still though, a 12 yard dyed warp is exciting! I have another warp ready to go on the loom before this one, because it'll take this one a few days to dry completely just hanging inside, now that the sun sets at about 4:30... It's actually still rinsing right now. I've been taking more of a hands off approach to rinsing, and just letting it sit in the bucket overnight sometimes.
It will be fun to weave once I get there!