Use What I Have

I've gotten very comfortable with dyeing wool and yesterday was "fuchsia color day" using some new wool and re-purposing other wools I've had for a while and wasn't using...


The wool on the left was white before dyeing (new), the next two hanks were wool I had purchased that was not completely dyed (recycled), the next hank was yarn which wasn't my favorite that I over-dyed (see the original below), and the last hank was natural shades of brown wool before dyeing (new). With the many different shades of fuchsia and violet, it's hard to believe these all came out of the same dye bath.

Here's the original color of the dyed yarn...


Nice change, yes?

Next, I used some of the wools I had previously dyed to make these wool pincushions...

To use up some tiny wool pieces that are no longer usable in other ways, I roll them into small balls and then roll more wool around them before adding colored roving to the outside of each pincushion. Here's what the center of a pincushion looks like...


Lastly, I did some fabric over-dyeing again yesterday with fabrics I had which weren't my favorites. Here they are after Bill pressed them...

Much better.

One of my favorite containers for dyeing large pieces of fabric is the mason's tub.


It's about 6" deep and has 17 1/2" x 22" of actual dyeing space (because it has sloped sides), and can be found at home improvement stores.

I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: these tubs make wonderful storage bins or toy boxes and they are short enough to slide under a bed. My sister worked at Lego for years when my sons were young and we had literally thousands of Lego's which all fit into a couple of these tubs.