On Saturday, to keep myself busy and my mind off of “Whyfore NO WHEEL?” I dyed up some of the gray Swalesdale fiber I ordered at the same time as the wheel. *ahem* Focusing on not being bitter.

It’s a simple but time consuming process.

Here we have the dry roving on the left, and the 20 minute room-temperature soak on the right.

Gloves really are essential, even with food safe dyes.  For roughly 3oz of fiber, I mixed up about 1/2 tsp of Wilton’s icing dye in a cup of hot water.  The amount of water isn’t really important, you need enough to cover the fiber, but not so much that it moves around and starts to felt.  Pour the dye solution into a pot of room-temperature water (the same temperature, roughly, as the soaking fiber.)

This is where it gets interesting.  Get the dyepot up to 160F and keep it there for about 10 minutes.  This should help the dye get into the fiber really thoroughly.

Then!  Add 1/4c vinegar to the dyepot.  I like to pour it into a glass of lukewarm or hot water to dilute it a bit so it spreads out into the dyebath better. The color will change almost immediately as the dye starts to stick to the fiber.

Juice it up to 180F and keep it there for about 30 to really tell that fiber who’s boss.  I was very successful with the amount of water I had keeping the fiber from twisting when the water could have been at a rolling boil.

Let the fiber cool naturally.  You can drain off some of the (now mostly clear) dyebath to speed it up a tad, but anything drastic will make your gorgeous new colored fiber go all felty-felty.  Once it’s close to room temperature (you can handle it comfortably with your bare hands) run a sink full of similarly-temperatured water and dunk it to rinse.  This gets the vinegar out, even if there’s no more dye.

I did this two more times to get 8oz of dyed fiber.  Small batches seem safer to keep the felt demons at bay.

I call the colorway, “Waiting.”

Speaking of which, I need a name for the wheel.  “Godot” springs to mind…  ha ha.  And since she’s a ladybug, I thought about going literal with, “Lady Bug.”  But yeah, literal.  Maybe, “Spinderella…”  Oooo ooo or, “Charlotte!”  Any ideas?

Kate, Jo and I assembled a few months ago to create our doubles out of an old Tshirt and, you guessed it, duct tape.  It’s pretty straightforward, and it’s not dangerous to the baby (I’ve seen him, he’s doing great!) because you don’t wrap the victim tightly.  It’s not overly pleasant to be inside the duct tape, but only in the sense that a tight leather jacket is uncomfortable sometimes.

Kate went first.  She had a great sense of humor about it.  I was very nervous about taping her belly since I don’t have much experience with pregnant people, but it turned out great.

Left: The obligatory boob shot.  You just have to laugh.

Right: All wrapped up.  We put cling wrap around Kate’s neckline so we could get the duct tape right up there without any discomfort.  And what a cute belly!  She mentioned she’ll probably save it as a souvenir.

I was next.  It feels weird.

Left:  I got a little silly when it was Jo’s turn.  Arrrr!  Duct tape pirate!

Right: Kate drew a center line on each double, with a bellybutton marking.  Very handy for fitting purposes.

Lessons:

• A second layer of duct tape would be a good idea.  I don’t know about Jo’s but Kate’s and mine both seemed to stretch when we stuffed them.  I solved that by putting my corset on it, since I was working on the Polonaise (to be worn over said corset) anyway.
• Kate suggested the “old hanger through the neck, then stuff” method.  Very handy.  I hang mine in the doorframe of the studio, so the waist is around eye level.  Use your imagination to picture the plastic store hanger at the top…
  
  
• It’s interesting to see your shape from the third person vantage point.  Stuff looks different, sometimes better!