Funny Farm

A fearsome foray into my fiber follies. I talk about weaving, knitting, spinning and dyeing. Some chatter about the sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.

My Photo
Name:
Location: North-east PA, United States

Sunday, June 14, 2009

all dyed

All 8,000 yards are dyed and dried and ready to be wound off onto the spools. Eventually. I'm warping the big loom for a rug as a reward for completing the above task.

I failed to tell of the (almost) dye disaster. I had just enough dye to dye 4,000 yards of each color. I haven't dyed vast quantities on the stove in a long time so it took some sleuth work to find my trusty big pot. Mr. Princess often (always) takes my stuff because I'm fairly organized and it's easier to pilfer from me than for him to go looking for his own stuff. Lord only knows what he used my pot for. Probably seating near the wood stove in the basement. But I found it, washed it up and put it on the stove in the kitchen. I tossed in several cups of salt, some boiling water and 3.7lt of dye stock. Stir, stir, stir. Turned on the heat and began filling up the bucket with water. I added one bucket full and filled up the next. While adding the next bucket I saw dye on the (glass) stove. I grabbed some paper towels and began wiping up. The more I wiped the more dye appeared and suddenly, whosh, a LOT of dye. A hole in the pot! I started bailing dye from the pot BECAUSE I HAVE JUST ENOUGH DYE FOR THE PROJECT! There was no way to calculate how much dye was lost and how diluted it was. After resuming breathing I found a smaller pot, added less water and started again. Luckily all 4,000 yards appear the same purple color. No more disasters and the dyeing is done. Though photos would have been amusing, clean up and dye saving was more important. Lesson: always hold the pot up to the sun and look for holes. Amen and amen.

6 Comments:

Blogger beadlizard said...

Yikes!

Can you hammer a penny in the hole? However, then I guess you have the reaction with the copper to deal with. Hmph.

Is Mr. Printhess in the dog house?

9:22 AM  
Blogger Sharon said...

Wow. That hazard never would have occurred to me. On the other hand, I don't have to share my pots. I'm going to be doing large pot dyeing in another month. Large pots are precious and I admire your restrained anger. I would be frustrated beyond words.

9:14 PM  
Blogger Sara said...

EEK! Glad you saved the yarn dye. Can't wait to see the beautiful purple color!

7:09 AM  
Blogger Leigh said...

8000 yards? Good grief. You're a better woman than I.

1:27 PM  
Blogger Bev said...

I have a large stainless steel basin that I have had since Susanna was born. I used to bathe her in it when she was a baby and we were camping. It had developed a not very big hole in the bottom and in desperation I stuck a patch of that sticky shipping tape with the white fibers running through it. It's worked for years. I've not tried dyeing in it, so don't know if there would be any reactions, and don't know how it would hold up with heat, but give it a try.

4:48 PM  
Blogger Sir Paul said...

Dear Marie
I wonder if you would be kind enough to post some pictures of your leesburg loom from various angles. My wife and I just bought one from a fellow but unfortunately he had dismantled it in order to move it across country so we are stuck with a myriad of pieces and only a vague idea of how to put them together. The gentleman in question told us it would be easy because "it's not rocket science". Well maybe its not rocket science but it feels like nuclear physics. Anyhow, we hope you will be kind enough to help us out as info on the web is lacking.
Thanking you sincerely and in advance,
Paul and Cheri Glover.
P.S. If you would prefer to e-mail the pictures to us the address is tapmatilda@aol.com

6:43 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

adopt your own virtual pet!