Almost Purposeful Dyeing

I started dyeing wool for my new project (which by the way still does not have a name.) I would call my dyeing, almost purposeful. It is purposeful in the sense that I am dyeing wool for a particular project, and that I have a general color idea before I start the process. The rest of the dyeing process is all done impulsively!

I gathered recycled woolens from vintage skirts in beige, peach and grey tones. No whites today. I love the fact that they have slightly different textures and appearances, but I am diverging. When I went downstairs yesterday to dye the wools, I knew I wanted to hook my new rug with muted jewel tones. I knew I wanted one of the hens to be a Rhode Island Red. When I dye, I basically only use very basic colors, primary colors, and black that  I mix until I have the colors I want. I place the colors on the wool in a way that pleases my eye, expecting surprises from their interactions.This is my favorite way of dyeing.

I created purples in a range of depths, ochres, aquas, rusts, corals, reds, greens, night blues, and browns. And you know, even though I have been a hand dyer for many years, I still marvel at the beauty of each piece of wool after I rinse it. The magic of color never ceases to amaze me. I am forever grateful we live in a colorful world!

I have transferred the pattern to linen, my wools, at least for now are ready. It is time to hook!

The Magic of Colors

Yesterday, I hand-dyed some woolens. I started with a cream base from a recycled skirt. I had RIT dyes at home. My goal was to create bright colored wool for my heart design, Kalon.

I plan on using the hand-dyeds in the circular shapes. I placed the wetted fabric on plastic wrap, and applied the colors. I then rolled the fabric into a  burrito and cooked it in the microwave for 5 minutes. I have no precise records. I just mix the colors as I go.

I created this piece using wines, reds, yellows, peach, and a touch of aqua. The close-up shows the aqua a little better.

I dyed a`second piece with more reds and still the magical aqua.

And then a section with navy blue, and muted purples.

They all look so wonderful together!

 I still have some work to do on the Moshimer rug, so I might just draw the Kalon design on my linen, and precut strips today. It will be hard to resist pulling a few loops!

I hope you will try to dye some woolens too. There is something magical about how the colors come together in a piece of wool.

Woolen Hunting

I love scouting the second hand stores for old woolen garments. I occasionally will pick up an amazing jacket, but my favorite garments are large skirts. You can get the most fabric out of them, and they are so easier to cut apart.

Most of the time I find neutral-toned fabrics with great chevron, or checkered patterns.

I love the neutrals very much because they over-dye so beautifully, and give me lots of color options. The neutrals immediately give the over-dyed fabric a vintage feel. It makes them perfect for using in primitive rug hooking. Add to that, a little bit of handcutting, making the strips of wool a little irregular...pure magic!

Sometimes, on my scouting trips, I find an amazing vintage wool skirt. This is exactly what happened last Friday. Even before I got to the skirt section, I spotted the skirt from afar. I kept my fingers crossed that it would be 100% wool. Just imagine my joy, when as I was looking for a tag inside the skirt, I saw the Pendleton Woolen Mills label!

The colors are fabulously bright, cobalt blue, kelly green, with thin lines of deep pink and a pale purple. Of course, I will probably rarely use it as is, because I tend to favor slightly muted colors. But I will definitely save an undyed piece to put as a splash of unexpected color in a design, and will overdye the rest.

I am sure you can sure you can tell I really love looking for old fabrics. I wonder if you do too? I might stop by my local second hand stores today on my way to the post office. I am already dreaming of what I could find!

Every Good Hooked Rug should Have its Greens

To go with my pinks, I needed some greens. I picked some more fabrics from my stash of recycled vintage wools, including the dark chevron I had rejected yesterday.

Making green I find is always hard. You don't want screaming green, not too yellow, not too blue, but not too brown. For this green batch I mixed a golden yellow with a little navy blue.

I got a lovely range of greens as they combined with the plaid and chevron patterns on my wools. The piece on top I decided to throw in the dye pot as an afterthought. I am so glad I did. I am particularly fond of it. It came from a vintage Pendleton Woolen Mills skirt, and based on the style of the skirt, I would say a 50's skirt. It took the green so well. It will add a lot of punch to my heart design. I will probably use it as a touch in a leaf. It will make it look sun-kissed. The best part for me is that I love how my greens go with my pinks. 

In the middle of the pinks I stuck a little piece of  aqua blue. I think it makes everything pop. I will have to dye some more of it.

I hope I will have some time today to continue working on my Moshimer Hooked Rug. I have given myself the goal to finish it before I start hooking anything else. Do you ever give yourself a goal like that? I think I need a little encouragement from you to meet this goal.

Tickled Pink

I have more dyed wool fabric to share with you. Today's dyeing session is maybe not as exciting and miraculous as yesterday's marbling session, but  I still love the results.

Once again I picked some fabrics from my stash of recycled woolens. I really like using recycled wool as opposed to new wool. The wools have a vintage charm, with unique patterns, and even though they are of similar thickness, the slight variations add dimension to a hooked piece. I also like the fact that using recycled  wool is closer to the original intent of the craft.

Because I had pink tones in mind, I picked fabrics with browns and creams, or tan in them. I actually did not  put  the fabric with the larger, darker chevron in this pot. I decided to keep it for a different color. The chevrons were a little too dark to give the more subtle look I was after.  Using fabrics with softer browns allowed the pinks to be more subtle, with an old rose feel. My goal was to mute the textures, and use the differences between the cream and tan ground to create variations in my married rose fabrics.

I love the aged pink look. I can see lots of uses for these fabrics, can't you? Next I will be dyeing some greens. I plan on using all these colors to hook a heart I have designed.

There is a lot to say about this heart, but that will have to wait until later...

A Little Marbling

The process of marbling woolen fabric gives magical results every time. I don't know about you, but it never ceases to amaze me.

For those of you who are not familiar with the process, the amazing results, reminiscent of book marbling are achieved without any dyes. The dry pieces of wool are just layered, alternating lights and darks, then rolled together, twisted and tied to secure the twist. The bundle is then placed in boiling water, and left to simmer until the dyes of each respective piece bleed on each other. The results are striking, giving a fabric with variations that will add movement to my rug hooking projects.


For this little marbling sessions, I started with four pieces of recycled wool, a burgundy, a camel, a soft grey, and a cream.

I layered the pieces...

Rolled them...

Twisted the roll, and tied it...

I cooked the bundle for about 50 minutes, and added a shot of vinegar to set the dyes, and let it sit in the pot for another few minutes.
I rinsed the fabrics, gave them a spin in my washer, and dried them in the dryer.

Here are the results. The cream fabric came out with lovely rich berry marbling, with touches of camel, the grey fabric with camel and burgundy marbling. The camel fabric darkened to a rosier camel, and got subtle burngundy marbling. The burgundy fabric kept its deep color, but with added highlights and "lowlights".

I am very happy with the results. It will be so much fun to use these fabrics in my next project. The pinks and berry tones will look lovely in the heart I have in mind.

I always have fun marbling woolen fabric! I love the surprise as you untwist the roll. It is a little like a cracker jack!

I am planning on dyeing more fabrics today. This time to create married textures that will work with my marbled fabrics.