November 22, 2009

Sheep to Sweater Sunday n° 24 "Color Rethink"

De la Toison au Tricot n̊ 24 “Repenser les couleurs”

For the past few weeks I’ve been busy preparing wool to spin for my fair isle cardigan. The honey-beige from Merveille is finished. So is the moorit brown from Nougatine and the grey from Sonnaille. Margot’s black fleece is almost finished too.

But I’ve been having problems with the other two colors : heather and ghillie green. I was planning on blending a few different colors together to get the look I wanted. But wasn’t having any luck with any of my trial batches.

Depuis quelques semaines maintenant, je m’occupe de la préparation de la laine à filer pour mon cardigan shetland. La laine beige-miel de Merveille est faite. Egalement la laine brune de Nougatine et la grise de Sonnaille sont prêtes. La toison noire de Margot est presque terminée aussi.

Mais il faut dire que j’ai eu des problèmes avec les deux autres couleurs : la couleur dite bruyère et celle dite verte mousse. J’avais l’intention de mélanger ensemble plusieurs couleurs pour arriver au look que je souhaitais. Mais vraiment sans succès!


After having worked with Amadéus’ beautiful grey fleece that had been dyed, I came to the realization that I was going about this in the wrong way. The best way to get the heather color that I wanted was to over-dye a grey fleece with magenta. As for the ghillie green, how about over-dyeing some brown fleece with green! This will be much easier than blending ... and I think that the results will be more to my liking.

Pourtant, après avoir travaillé la belle toison grise de Amadéus qui avait été teinte, je me suis rendue compte que je m’étais trompée d’approche! La meilleur façon de créer la couleur bruyère est de teindre une toison grise avec de la teinture magenta. Quant à la couleur dite verte mousse, pourquoi pas teindre une toison brune avec de la teinture verte. En tout cas ça serait plus facile que de mélanger plusieurs couleurs. En plus je pense que les résultats seront plus à mon goût!

I only need 270 meters of ghillie green ... just over 70 grams of finished yarn. So I decided to take just one third of Elaphe’s fleece (150 grams) and dye it green.

How does this look!

Je n’ai besoin que de 270 mètres de fil, c’est à dire un peu plus que 70 grammes de laine filée. Alors, j’ai décidé d’utiliser un tiers de la toison d’Elaphe (150 grammes) et de la teindre avec de la teinture verte.

Qu’est-ce que vous en pensez?

And here’s what the combed fiber looks like!

Et voilà un peu de cette laine peignée.


Perfect! Just what I was hoping for!

C’est parfait! Juste ce que j’espérais!

For the heather, I need 405 meters, which is a bit over 100 grams ... so I’ll need to use a whole fleece. I’ve used Iroise’s beautiful grey fleece and dyed it magenta.

Pour la couleur dite bruyère, j’ai besoin de 405 mètres de fil, c’est à dire à peu près de 110 grammes de laine filée. ...alors je vais avoir besoin d’une toison entière. J’ai choisi la belle toison grise d’Iroise des Lutins du Montana et je l’ai teinte avec de la teinture magenta.

And here’s the combed fleece and a sample of spun yarn.

Voilà la laine peignée et un petit échantillon de la laine filée.

This is so beautiful and the color is perfect.
I ended up with 160 grams of combed top and 180 grams of combing waste.
Looks like I’ll be able to make a matching felt beret with this!

C’est vraiment très beau! La couleur est parfaite. J’ai fini par avoir 160 grammes de laine peignée et 180 grammes de déchets du peignage. Alors, il me semble que je peux même en faire un béret feutré assorti avec les déchets!

I still have to comb Elphe’s green fleece.
But I’m getting there!

J’ai toujours la toison verte d’Elaphe à peigner
... mais je vais y arriver!

4 comments:

Amy said...

Your dyed fiber is really, really beautiful! I have sheep in the Mid United States. What kind of sheep are ouessant? I have Shetlands. Amy at Wheely Wooly Farm

Libellula said...

I love your sheep jackets. Did you make them yourself? Do you have a picture of how they are fastened underneath please. I am getting a couple of angora goats soon for their fleeces and I will need to protect them like this. I am sure this will amuse the local agriculteurs here (11) Aude.
I like your blog, I am on Ravelry as LibellulaGlass and Forum du filage as Llamalady. Good luck with your work
Josephine

Diane said...

Hi Amy! Thanks for visiting!
Ouessant sheep are the smallest breed of sheep in the world : max height for a ewe (measured at the shoulders is 18 inches (most of mine are about 16.5-17" ; max height for rams is 19.2" .. my adult rams are about 17". They were originally from the island of ouessant off the french coast. They are a northern european short tail breed, so a not so distant cousin of your beautiful shetlands.
By the way loved your blog ... such beautiful sheep!

Diane said...

Hi Josephine! Thanks for visiting.
Why don't you send me an email /message, either through the email link on the blog (on the left side) or message me through ravelry.
In short, NO, I didn't make the coats myself and it would be quite ill-advised for anyone to do so ... very very important to use the correct fabric, etc... If you're interested, I am thinking about placing an order with the company (in Austrialia). It would be cheaper for a couple of us to place a group order to keep prices as low as possible. Also ... I plan on writing a more detailed post about coating in general and my experience and conclusions in particular in the next week or so.
best regards, Diane

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