Pink - lots of pink

I spun and spun and spun.   I had lots of 2 ply white Shetland yarn spun to weave with.   I sent a cryptic email to hubby, with 3 colour choices.  I didn't tell him what it was for, just choose one of Pink, Blue or Purple.   He chose pink.  

With the magenta acid dye, I did a Depth of Shade study including .05%, .1%,  .5%, 1%,  and 2.%, using a 1% stock solution. 

I couldn't believe how long it took to dye this.  I had two dye vats going and started at about 10 am.  I finished up at 10.15 pm    Phew, that was a long day.   While it wasn't all spent at the dye pot, much of it was, keeping the temperatures from going too high or too low.  The darker colours took much longer to exhaust.

A few weeks ago I was playing with my new wool hackle.  Hubby made it for me as there were a couple of colour exercises in my homework.  I was pretty certain I'd never, ever use a hackle again in my life, so instead of putting out the $ for a commercial one, he ran to the hardware store and for $26 he got supplies.   It was -25 in the garage, but he persevered.  It took him the better part of a week, but he presented me with a hackle to play with.

 Here is where I say, NEVER say NEVER!   This was such fun to play with.   I loved the way the fibre came off in lovely sliver using the diz.  It was easy and gave a lovely blend.  I could have kept blending it to get a more even mix but I really liked this one.   It spun nicely too.

Yep, the hackle will be a fun tool for bits and pieces leftover from other projects and to just play with when miles of whatever I've been spinning just seems to need a fun break time.