Friday, January 11, 2008

Majacraft Dyeing Magic

I do love spinning on my Majacraft. I started spinning on a Louet and it was very nice, then I just sat down and played on a Majacraft and fell in love. To top that off, the company had just introduced the one with the alpaca carved on it. Well, that was an omen for sure, I ordered one.

She came with the plastic spindles and I was told by several folks that I could dye on them - but haven't found anyone who actually does. I tried it and how fun! (I normally spin with my Woolee Winder).

I mixed a little Periwinkle and Hot Fuschia powder together, poured hot water on it and mixed it up. From past experience I know that the Periwinkle will pop out some pink somehow.

I dumped the dye solution into my dye kettle with some almost boiling water. I eased two spindles of white handspun (that had been soaking in a vinegar/water solution overnight) into the hot water, and let it simmer for about an hour.

In the picture I smooshed some of the blue aside so that you can see the pink underneath. This was all a nice surprise, because I expected the inside to be white. See below for the yarn. ↓

7 comments:

Julia said...

Hi Maple,
This is so neat!! So you didn't have to inject dye into the bundle at all? Were you able to leave the yarn on the bobbin for wash and dry as well? This might just be one more reason to treat myself to a new wheel this year... :)
Thanks for sharing!

Peggy said...

WOW, isn't that just too cool!!!!!

Knitted Gems said...

I must admit that i didn't understand half of what you said (as much as I love knitting and working with wool, I don't understand anything about spinning and dyeing it). Yet, I wanted to pop in and tell you what a beautiful color your alpaca came out to be.

Anonymous said...

So you really don't mind the plastic spindles. I love the Majacraft wheel (don't own one but would love it to be my second) but have been waffling because the spindles are plastic.

Alpaca Granny said...

anonymous, I don't usually use the plastic spindles because I have a Woolee Winder that has it's own spindles. But before I got the WW, I was happy with the plastic.

Beth said...

Hey Maple!
I'm going to try this dying this week! Can't believe how nice it looks.
And you know I love my Majacraft.
I have some wooden bobbins for mine in addition to the plastic but now I have another thing to tell customers the plastic bobbins are good for!

Tracy said...

Wow. This is really neat. I'll have to try it some day.

Map