In this post we will revisit the yellow dyed fibre. You will recall from the dyeing post that I used a new product called wash and dye. As the product ensures that the dye goes past the cuticle of the fibre and into the centre of each strand of fibre, the developer recommends you will need more dye. Very logical. The dye took very well, in fact better than I anticipated. The colour I achieved was more vibrant than I was hoping for. All is not lost, there is no need to panic. We can address this issue.
In order to tone down this colour we will blend some white into the yellow. I weigh the fleece and divide it in pieces of 1 ounce of yellow and .3 ounce of white.
Using a drum carder I layer fibre onto the tray and slowly turn the drum. Alternating a layer of yellow, then white then yellow, repeat…you get the drift.
Remove the batt from the drum. Now divide the batt by pulling sections from the side, down the length of the batt. Open up these sections and add to the drum carder.
Once all the fibre has gone onto the carder remove the batt. This time grab the batt with both hands and open the fibre as if opening a book.
Put these layers through the drum carder. Next card the fleece again, this time pulling sections from the side and down the length of the batt. Continue to alternate these divisions of fibre and card until you see the fibre is even in colour with no chunks of white or yellow but a nice even tone.
The following picture shows the blended fibre compared to the original tone. So there you have it, crisis adverted
Our YouTube channel Murlo Discovery Channel offers a video on the blending of these fibres.
If you have not yet subscribed to our website please use the follow button. Notifications will be sent to you as new posts are added.
Until next time happy carding.