Two New Rovings

As I was telling Robbyn and Ev Thursday night at Chatters, yesterday I was feeling inspired to dye some rovings. So I pulled out some Correidale roving from Misty of Three Elms Farm, and got to work. From the giant ball of roving, I made 2 lengths of 4 oz each. Then I set them to soaking in warm water with a few drops of dish detergent.

This first one was done with a semi-cold pour method. The water was just over 100*F when I started adding the pink dye, letting dye gradients do a lot of the work as it spread out from the glob (technical term there) of Wilton's Icing Dye in Dusty Rose. Then I let it come up to just under 190*F so that the dye would strike quickly for the greens.

My thought process for these was to mimic one of my favorite plants, the bleeding heart. It is mostly greens, with some subtle variations mimicking the play of light and shadow on this shade tolerant plant. Then there are several shades of pink, the brightest being that distinctive "traditional bleeding heart" bright pink with touches of white.

Materials for this included: roving, citric acid, Wilton's icing dye in dusty pink, leaf green, and kelly green, and 2 squeeze bottles.


This second roving was done with a hot pour method. I got the bath and wool up to just under 190*F before adding in the dye. This was super easy especially with the squeezy bottles. I really want to play with this method more.

This roving reminded me of algae. Okay, maybe not the most glamorous of living beings, but they are still mighty useful! Materials for this included: roving, citric acid, Wilton's icing dye in leaf green and aqua, and 2 squeeze bottles.

I have to say that this wool was pure pleasure to work with. It's pale color made it take color very well. And although it is soft, it really stood up to my not always super gentle handling without any inadvertent felting. I just wish my wheel was fixed so that I could spin some up. I am not sure enough of my drop spindle abilities to use these rovings with a drop spindle just yet.