Here are two balls of hand painted yarn. yes, I painted them myself. The process was simple. I first unwound the balls of store bought, cotton yarn onto a skein winder, then I tied the skeins so they wouldn't come tangled. I dunked them in plain water, applied the textile paint & allowed it to sit for a while so the yarn would absorb the paint. Then, I laid them out in the sun to dry. Once dry I zapped the yarns in the microwave for 3 minutes each. Next, I rewound the skeins back into balls. The longest part was waiting for the yarn to dry. It takes a hot sunny day for best results. The paints make the yarns a bit stiffer than dyes do because the paint sits on top of the fibers instead of becoming part of the fiber like dye would. I found a source for natural, plain yarns to dye or paint. I'll probably do this again.
There Are Angels

Colored Pencil Drawing
Monday, May 24, 2010
Painted Yarns
Here are two balls of hand painted yarn. yes, I painted them myself. The process was simple. I first unwound the balls of store bought, cotton yarn onto a skein winder, then I tied the skeins so they wouldn't come tangled. I dunked them in plain water, applied the textile paint & allowed it to sit for a while so the yarn would absorb the paint. Then, I laid them out in the sun to dry. Once dry I zapped the yarns in the microwave for 3 minutes each. Next, I rewound the skeins back into balls. The longest part was waiting for the yarn to dry. It takes a hot sunny day for best results. The paints make the yarns a bit stiffer than dyes do because the paint sits on top of the fibers instead of becoming part of the fiber like dye would. I found a source for natural, plain yarns to dye or paint. I'll probably do this again.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
A Shawl
Aside from some practice pieces, this is my first official woven project. It's a 24" wide shawl in wool yarn. Its about 5 foot long. It should have been a little longer, the target length was 6 foot. I'm still working on getting the right length to things. But, it does go around the shoulders nicely.
The photo below shows the detail. It uses a pick up stick design of 2 up & 2 down. It was fairly simple to accomplish & took about 4-6 hours to weave.
More to come, Stay tuned . . .
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