#i spun another skein that's currently drying

[milkweedman]

Is it insane to start knitting a sweater when youve only spun like 1/15 of the yarn youll need for it ? Asking for me (i have already started ...)

[milkweedman]

Final results, more or less. Still no idea how accurate the colors are on camera, probably not very. But I've fully exhausted the dye bath and mostly exhausted my washed wool supply, so now I need to wash a bunch more.

Top and farthest from the front is the first batch, and the most green of all of them. That's the alum mordanted fleece. Sort of a green gold. Very pretty, although I'll admit I was hoping for something more green.

Closest to the camera is the second batch, and first exhaust. Also when I poured the copper mordant into the dye solution. I still dont know what color to call it, sort of orangey gold in the sunlight.

The last one isn't dry yet so the color will probably change somewhat, but it's currently dirty blond. It was the last exhaust bath, also copper mordanted. It's not a bad color but not exactly exciting either, so I might overdye it if I get the chance.

Lastly the skein I dyed. It's got some dark spots (to be expected, or at least, that always happens to me when I dye as yarn) and should knit up into a pretty square.

If anyone wants to know the dyeing process with buckthorn, it's below the banners and cut.

I started with:

56 grams of Hampshire wool, washed (2 ounces) although dyed 225 grams / 8 total ounces

7 grams of alum (1.9t, rounded up to 2)

1.5 grams Cream of Tartar (1/2 t)

3 single handfuls of dried buckthorn berries (presumably more if fresh, as they shrink)

Fill dye vessel with a little hot water, add in CoT and alum and stir til mixed. Add more hot water and then add in wool, prodding until fully immersed (add water to wool line).

In this case I was using my single person crock pot/slow cooker and 2 ounces of wool just about filled it to the brim. Because of this I put the temperature on low instead of high as I normally would--if filled to the brim on high it will overflow.

I cooked the wool on low overnight to mordant it, then drained the water, washed out the crock pot, refilled it with water, and added the berries. Initially the berries were just free in the water but after a few hours I wanted to put the wool in, and didnt want to pick the berries out of the wool, so instead I gathered the berries back up and tied them up into a rag so that they could keep steeping. Then I put the wool in.

I let the wool cook for 24 hours on low heat, checking on it and stirring once or twice a day. After it reached the desired color, I pulled it out, rinsed it in hot water, hung it up to dry, and readied another batch of wool, because the dyebath clearly still had a lot of color.

I didn't have any pre-mordanted Hampshire available so instead I poured some handmade copper mordant into the dyebath, perhaps 1/4 cup (60 mL) or so. Then I got another 2 ounces/56 grams of wool up to temperature by rinsing it in a hot tap, squeezed a little of the excess water out, and put it in the dyebath.

Another 24 hours of cooking on low and that batch also had a beautiful color, so I pulled it out as well. By now the dye bath didn't have a lot of color left but it did still have some. So for the last batch, I dyed some fleece and then a sample skein of hampshire that i spun earlier, because why not. I also added another half single handful of dried berries in, these ones loose.

24 hours on low, and dyebath was the color of a very weak tea--finally exhausted. The last batch didn't have a lot of color, which is to be expected with the exhaust of exhaust. No worries.