day forty-five: spinning my… spindle
More spinning today. This time it was Blue-Faced Leicester (BFL) which is white, so I can pop it into a dye bath. I got ~330 inches of 2 ply thread made - just shy of ten yards. I even took video of myself making a leader to start spinning, but video editing is not my forte, so that will go up later.
please to enjoy this photo of my spindle and wool.
I thought I had brought a baggie of more BFL, but alas, I was mistaken.
I decided that I had enough to go on with, so I plied it using the Andean plying method, which is a method the singles around your hand and middle finger so you can ply from both ends into the middle. I have no illusions that it's appropriate for the Viking Age, but it's plying, for crying out loud. We have no way of knowing how it was done, and really, what matters at that stage is that it was done.
Sorry, I forgot to get pictures of that. I still have to ply a couple of spindles of Manx fiber, and more BFL to spin and dye, so there will be other chances.
I set the newly plied skein by wetting it and putting it in the microwave for thirty seconds, and then I tied a piece of string to it so I wouldn’t lose it in the pot, went out to the garage, and dropped it in the dyebath Axel and I made on Wednesday.
I checked the pH when I got here, and interestingly, it was the same as when I left on Wednesday - around 11. I'm putting that right down to having a bucket with a lid: less evaporation and possibly less oxidization. Regardless of the reason, it was ready on the spot for me to add fiber, and so I did.
I went out about an hour later, and it's already looking really good. It will still probably be a golden brown, but this time that's what I want. I might try madder or indigo to sew my tunic; who knows. I have these baths already made. Not much sense, this late in the year, in making more. I'll probably take some of the most recent buckthorn bath home in a jar, as well as some of the walnut.
i don't hate the beige
That beige is what I got after a couple of hours in the buckthorn. It will be interesting to see where it is tomorrow, after a longer soak and a nice stir.
For now though, bedtime. Night, y'all.