Enjoying Colors

I love dyeing wool!

Hand dyed Kainuu Grey sheep baby wool, available at Etsy

I spun some baby sheep wool to get samples of various yarn so that me and my friend Susanna could decide what to get made at a yarn mill.

The first three skeins in the picture have been hand dyed after spinning. My personal favorite is the leftmost, the yarn with black, dark grey and red. It is called "Joy and Sorrow" and it is inspired by Karelia, the area where the sheep wool comes from and where also both me and Susanna come from.

The second one on the left is inspired by colors used in icons. Unfortunately the red got too pink! And for the third one I got an idea from embroidery stitches. But I did not succeed in color, neither in the dyeing.

The fourth skein is natural colored 2-plied yarn that I used for the first three. And the last one is spun with three different shades using 2 grams of each in turn. It is 3-plied.

Ok, those were pretty soft and I was quite pleased with the spinning process but still nothing like this one:

I love this yarn! It is so soft! Spun from the natural dyed Kainuu grey sheep wool. Susanna has handdyed it with hand picked lichen. I have two large skeins and I am so pleased I succeeded in bringing the softness of the wool into the yarn.

From the two of us, my friend is more specialized in dyeing with natural colors. But I have made some experiments too and here's a skein of commercial sock yarn, dyed with marigolds. Not any marigolds really, as I have grew them from seeds.

It brings me great pleasure to work with wool, dyes and plants. Probably as I love everything where I can enjoy colors!