Can you over-dye black fleece or yarn?

I have spun loads of natural "black" yarn and just how black that yarn is depends on all sorts of factors including; breed of sheep, genetic strain of breed, amount of sunlight the fleece has been subjected to, general weathering and probably a whole host of other factors can contribute to just how black a black sheep is.

I was looking at all my skeins of handspun black yarn together and the variation in shade from chocolate brown to almost jet black and was wondering if it was possible to over-dye something this dark, having already had success with dyeing mixed coloured fleeces.  I asked around on various forums that I visit and, to be honest, not many people responded and out of those only one or two had even tried.  Hmmm, ok, its up to me to just give it a go then!

I took the two black skeins from Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.4 and the black skein from Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.6 to have a go at making them a little more interesting.

I started out overdyeing the No.6 black with Greener Shades dye in Amethyst Purple at 1% dye strength but this turned out to not be strong enough and so I dyed it again at the same level of dye, effectively making it a 2% dye strength, and whilst not perfectly even coloured, the result isn't too bad and you can see the difference between undyed and dyed in the top two photos.

I then took the worsted weight yarn from Fleece No.4 and over-dyed that with Greener Shades dye in River Blue at a dye strength of 2% and got an all over even toned shade.

Lastly, I took the double knit weight yarn from Fleece No.4 and over-dyed that using Greener Shades dye Ruby Red, again at a 2% dye strength, for a lovely dark red yarn.

So, yes, you can over-dye something that is dark in colour as long as you use a strong dark colour at a decent dye strength.  Its no good tickling it with a weak dye as you may as well throw that dye down the drain.  I think that it has made these yarns a lot more interesting and prettied them up.

Yes, yes, I know I messed up with this last photo as they're not in the same order, I'm only human.

Lincoln Longwool Lamb Part I - Maroon

I bought 1kg of Lincoln Longwool Lambs fleece in July 2014 from a guy in Sleaford, Lincs, who was selling quite a few of these fleece.

It arrived in "unusual" packaging, it was inside a cereal box which was wrapped in paper.  The packaging was dry on the outside but the fleece felt really damp and the locks felt heavy.  When it first arrived it was really filthy and after taking photographs of the fleece, I weighed it at 1kg and the put the fleece into a carrier bag and left it in our laundry room, leaving the bag open for the air to get to it and dry it out.  I weighed it again about 24 hours later and it had lost 100g in weight and smelt musty but was now quite dry, as you would expect it to have arrived.

I sorted through it and threw away 112g of rubbish and then washed it as soon as my hanging drier was available - it was summer and I take advantage of washing/drying/dyeing fleece whilst its dry and warm and so its almost in constant use.  I was left with 621g of clean fleece after washing and drying it.

This fleece was then stored for a while until, on 10th April 2015, I split the fleece into 3 equal parts and dyed each lot a different colour; maroon, deep violet and purple.

The first lot, I dyed using Colour Craft All In One Easyfix dye in Maroon.  I started out with 206g of fleece and after I had combed this I was left with about 150g of nests to be spun, a yield of almost 73%

This made a Light Fingering yarn, 140g/480m that has wonderful lustre.

There are two more lots of this fleece in other colours and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.3

I am really getting through these Jacob fleece this year.  This is Fleece No.3 from Hillcrescent Farm.

Sheared on 26th May 2013, this one weighed 1.05kg after I skirted it.  I think this is the photo of the correct sheep, its difficult trying to match fleece to sheep when you're not familiar with the animal.

After it was washed and dried I was left with 413g of black fleece and 230g of the mixed colours.  It wasn't worth trying to get white from this mostly coloured fleece.

The mixed colours

I decided to dye this fleece as I knew that the colour would take after dying another fleece.  I dyed this using Greener Shades dye in Ruby Red.  I dyed this back in March and finished making the yarn in April.

When I combed this the colours combined and it looked like a completely different colour.  Blending colours together really is like mixing paint.  I got 81g of combed top from the original 230g.

The finished yarn is sport weight and is 79g/371m.  I've name this Rosewood.

The Black Fleece

I didn't take any photos but I got 194g of nests from my original 413g of washed fleece.

I tried dying this fleece black using the last of my all-in-one-dyes as this fleece had a lot of sun-bleached tips.  I spun up this Worsted weight yarn, which is 97g/241m.  As you can see, thanks to the dye its a bit darker than usual.

I also spun up this sport weight yarn, which is 96g/415m.

And that is another fleece completely done.

Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.4, Part III

This is my third and final post about Jacob Fleece No.4 from Hillcrescent Farm.  This time I have been working on the black part of the fleece.

I didn't take any photographs of before or during, I just got straight on with the job.  If you read my blog regularly I'm sure by now what a black fleece looks like before and after being combed.

I started out with 364g of black fleece and after being combed I was left with 190g of nests to spin which I split into to amounts to make 2 skeins of yarn.

The top photo is worsted weight and is 90g/314m and the bottom photo is double knit weight and is 87g/337m.

That's another whole fleece completed.

Purple and Blue Mohair Shawl - Design D198

Picking back up with the mohair yarn, this time in a purple and blue mix, I made my third consecutive shawl in the same design.  The yarn is, once again, 78% Mohair, 13% wool and 9% Nylon.    This one I started on 18th June but then we had a heatwave and I just could not knit with mohair in the heat and humidity as it just stuck to my hands.  I finished making it when the weather cooled down on 14th July 2015.

Hillcrescent Farm Jacob Fleece No.4, Part II

Further to my post back in January about Jacob Fleece No.4 from Hillcrescent Farm, this time I have been working on making yarn from the mixed colours part of the fleece.

I decided to have a go at dying this fleece, knowing that colour would be taken up by the white or lighter parts of the fleece but not sure what would happen with the darker fleece.  I chose to combine two different dyes together to make up the amount of dye needed for the amount of fleece and see what would happen.  I chose Olive Green and Golden Yellow.

Hmmm, interesting!

I combed 212g of my dyed fleece, blending the colours together and was left with just 89g of combed top for spinning.  I had some similar coloured Kid Mohair that I bought from My Heart Exposed Yarns back in 2012.

I split the Mohair proportionately to the Jacob and drafted them side by side, and then spun from both simultaneously holding the two lengths at the same time.  I made a double knit yarn that is 160g/495m.

I didn't really like the colour of the finished yarn so I over-dyed it.  I ended up over-dyeing it twice in the same colour because the first time it was a little patchy and I had left the ties too tight and the dye didn't take in these parts, a bit like tie dying.

This time I used Greener Shades Dye at 1% made up of 75% River Blue and 25% Amazon Green and I love the colour that it has turned out.

First, it came out patchy but looks lighter than it actually was in these photos as I used the flash on my camera.

Then I done it again and took some glamour shots.

I will blog about the black from this fleece at a later date, once I have combed and spun it.

We've been camping in Wales!

I'm 42, I have never been camping in my life, ever, not even as a kid.  Hubby suggested earlier this year that we should go on camping holidays as it would be easier with the dog and the kids and its something he used to do years ago.  We go shopping at Go Outdoors for the tent and other equipment but I didn't like the look and feel of the tent he was looking at, with the girls growing up fast it wouldn't last us long as we would soon need a bigger one to cope with bigger people and I don't like to feel cramped up/penned in.  If we are doing this we are doing this BIG.

Big tent and equipment bought of a period of a few months and off we go camping during the school half term holiday at the end of May, Monday to Friday.  Hubby booked the pitch, based on recommendations from his brother and online reviews.  Hendre Mynach Campsite in Barmouth, Wales.

He had a large pitch with electrical hook-up and there are basic shower and toilet facilities and a shop on site.  The weather wasn't the best, we did have some cloudy days and some rain but it was a nice break and we did lots of walking and we all had a good time.  There is a railway line that runs between the beach and the campsite for local trains, which are about 1 an hour and it is segregated off from the campsite and you have to use the special crossing to get to the beach but other than that it is pretty quiet.  The campsite is really close to the beach, just across that railway line!

Above the town is a National Trust walk, Dinas Oleu.  The stone wall, in the second photo, can be seen on the first photo below, just slightly up from the centre of the photo.  There are some great views up there and plenty of fresh air!

The beach is dog friendly up towards the north end and so we spent a lot of time up there as we took our little dog with us on holiday.  Plenty of space too as not many people about.

The bottom photo below is about as north as we walked, and we walked a long way, and shows you just how close the railway line is to the sea.

Walking around Barmouth town we came across Dragon Theatre with a beautiful mosaic and interesting decoration either side of the front door.

Of course, we are in Wales, so we are bound to find some of these.  The sheep with the coloured spray on I think are Welsh Mountain sheep and the photos of the sheep on the hill with large stone areas I think are Lleyn Sheep but I'm not totally sure.

It was a good break, very windy, we could have had better weather but we could have had far worse too.  For a first camping holiday it certainly was an experience.