Indigo

This past week the indigo pot has been quietly fermenting in the basement at Anne's house.  My cream colored carpet, white paint, light colored benches just somehow didn't seem the safest place to be playing with bright blue dyes :-)

Last weekend was the 'assembly' - after having prepared the heating box (earlier blog) it was time to put it all together.  The kit is from Oregon and arrived promptly through the post.  We bought a 'double' kit so that the dye pot could be replenished for some time to come (Indigo dye pots can be kept 'alive' for many many years).

The full kit (which also contains some material samples to dye)

 The first job was to measure out the ingredients and add them to the pot of warm water.

The contents of the kit, all but the washing soda had to be halved.

Slowly adding each ingredient

All mixed and ready to cover/heat

The next step is to wait until the indigo is 'reduced' (from original blue) and ready to dye (green), the indicator is a coppery sheen on the top of the liquid.  From then on after each dye day a little 'top up' of madder and wheat bran is added to 'refresh' the mix.  Then when it really starts to slow down and only dye light shades, a fresh proportional amount of the original ingredients is added.  To put it to sleep for periods, it is as simple as turning off the heat, then warming it up prior to the next dye session.

Hopefully it will all be ready for the first planned dye session some time after next weekend.

Hurricane Irene

Who'd have thought that a hurricane would impact on the project?

Turns out that the extensive rain we had over the period when Hurricane Irene transited, severely tested out storage techniques at Anne's house (her garden shed!).  We had (see previous posts) skirted most of the wool and transferred it to brown paper 'leaf and garden waste' sacks - 1 fleece per bag.

Along came the rain and drove into the shed at angles we hadn't anticipated so a reasonable amount of water got to the bags.  Now as it turns out they are a little bit water resistant, and while they (and a little bit of wool inside) got wet that didn't turn out to be the problem.

Something in the paper making process made wet paper absolutely irresistible to ants!!  By the time we discovered this, there was quite a colony starting to build up on the outside of the top bag.  With the prospect of as many inside as out - we did a quick clean up (of the ants and eggs on the outside) and opened the first bag.

Clean!! (with some damp spots) - so the conclusion was it was the paper, and not the raw wool that attracted them.  So with some quick work to spread out and dry the few bits of wool that did get damp we are back in business, and now that I have finished washing the wool I had at my place I have taken the first two bags of wool from the shed back to the apartment.

As it turns out one of those fleeces we labeled #1 - it was fairly clean and it had very long locks (not Shrek long, but consistently long across the whole fleece), so will be a pleasure to prepare and card once scoured.

Boxed In

More recognisable in a home brewer's workshop (I used to do this) than perhaps a spinners - I've been building a heat box over the last couple of nights.

As mentioned previously - for CF project #1 I'll be using indigo dye - and the (traditional) preparation of the dye is to ferment it.  More on the details of this in the next blog, but to create the 'perfect' temperature you need to keep the dye pot at a constant temperature (just as for brewing) for about a week.

Luckily I had a convenient box to modify and purchased the 'heater' and gauge at the local K-Mart.

The box is fully lined with foil (glued on) and I've reinforced the edges inside and out with duct tape.  I modified the top so that it will allow the hanging of a light bulb and you can still open or close a flap to allow some control of the temperature if needed.

First trials went well - the goal temperature to keep the indigo fermenting/ready is 100-120 and in the two hours I had the lamp running the box (bottom) internal temperature was at 100, with a 60 Watt light bulb and the flaps loosely closed.  I suspect I can block off the top seams and gain a little more to put it exactly in the middle of the range.

The high tech part is the thermometer - I spent a huge $14 and bought an indoor/outdoor wireless one - so the 'outdoor' part sits in the box and the reader can be anywhere up to 100 feet away - works perfectly!

The heat box - 'plugged in'

Running - with one flap open

Coming up to temperature

All the same and something different

Still spinning - and now very close to the first milestone 'amount' - sufficient so that the process of dyeing the two indigo shades can begin. (The three gallon dye pot has been purchased, and I am researching the best method of heating - think home brew sort of thing).  The dye kit that looks like it will do the job is from Aurora Silk who market only natural dyes.

But as the process continues I've taken the following three photo's - and ask: what do they have in common - scroll down to find out...

Batt, sliver/roving, bobbin of singles, and they are all the same amount of wool

And for the something different:

Natural cotton and spun two ply thread.

I picked up these natural cotton bolls at our last Thursday night session and had forgotten completely about it until I discovered them in the dryer (they were still in my shirt pocket).  They didn't seem to suffer at all, so I decided to have a quick go at spinning directly from the boll.  It can be done, but is probably not the easiest process, and won't be on my to-do list for a while...