Thursday, January 23, 2014

Thread love and dyeing fun

Good morning friends,hope that you all are staying nice and warm where ever you are at.I just about froze my backside off ,out feeding the animals this morning.With the windchill we are at a balmy 0*,not much fun to be out in.If the wind was not bad enough my water had frozen at the barn so that meant packing lots of  buckets from momma's house.Thirty or more goats, a pot belly pig, several chickens can drink a lot even in cold weather.All is good though because so far they are all handling  the cold well. I know that it is even colder in many places so I will try not to complain. 

The title of this post is thread love ,so I guess I should explain it a bit.Many of you talk of about fabric addiction ,but mine is  thread.I can't help myself ,if I could I would have a room full of thread.My favorite has to be embroidery floss ,although I always find myself walking up and down the isles of yarn and crochet thread in stores.I can't crochet or knit but I still have to walk up and down drooling and touching the beautiful colors and textures .LOL! Hubby just stands back watching and shaking his head.Good thing he is a patient man.

I bought a floss lot off from ebay.It had been cut and packaged for kits but for the price I could not resist it.I knew that most of the colors were not my usual choices but I was thinking that it would be fun to  dye them.

 This is the way it arrived.Lots of floss but it needed to be separated out into individual colors.



 This is after several days of separating into individual color piles and  then twisting into 20 yard skeins.Such wonderful goodness.


 While the colors are pretty as they are,I usually like darker shades to work my punch needle projects.Yep, you guessed it...time to drag the crock pot and dye out.Hubby was really shaking his head (you'd think he'd be used to these things by now) and saying wouldn't it be easier just to buy the colors I like.Of course it would but it sure would not be as fun.LOL! I used Rit dye in dark brown,tan ,scarlet and some custom mixed colors.Now these colors I love,just wonderful in my opinion. 

Won't these be nice for Fall projects?





 I think when it was all tallied up I ended up with something like 389 skeins of floss! Yippee! I still have more to dye and I am thinking of doing some with black and maybe gray.Should be fun.Some skeins have already been used in a few projects that I will share later on.I have been watching for more lots like this,it is a lot of work but the reward is awesome.

Off to work on another punch needle project.Stay warm and safe friends.Blessings,Jen

15 comments:

Unknown said...

You are one patient lady! That is a lot of floss!!! Have fun :)
Kim

Shirlee said...

Very pretty floss my friend! It was very cold here this morning but now it's warmed up & the snow we had the other day is beginning to melt : (

Danice G said...

What gorgeous shades of floss! Yes, dyeing is the best way to get the color you want. It really is time consuming, but so worth it. About dyeing, I think of what happened to a friend: someone called her house, and she was dyeing fabric, so her husband told the caller that she was "dying" (ie "dyeing)! They thought the wrong spelling/meaning fo the word, and were glad to hear that their friend had not passed away. lol!

Raymond Homestead said...

Lots of floss and lots of colors!

Raymond Homestead said...

Lots of floss and lots of colors!

Jessica said...

Wow that is a lot of floss! I have a bag of floss from my grams that has a lot of colors I'd never use. I never thought of dying them, great idea!

Primitive Stars said...

Wow, love all the colors, so pretty, Francine.

Merry Wind Farm said...

Hi, Jen,
Wow, what a great deal you found on ebay...beautiful flosses. I sure understand about freezing while doing barn work, I have to bundle up and go out there 4-5 times a day...brrrr. I haven't let the horses out of the barn for 3 days, and they are getting grumpy (so am I)
Melinda

Three Sheep Studio said...

Oh, this is pure heaven !
You have done a beautiful job with the colors.
I'm sure this will provide you with lots of inspiration for new projects. ;)
Rose

Rugs and Pugs said...

Oh those turned out beautiful!
Stay warm is possible.
Pug hugs :)
Lauren

Kendra said...

I am drooling now too! I love finding a lot of thread at a garage sale or Goodwill. I have to admit though that my thread is all a mess right now though, knots and twists and balls and such!

Kendra

Deb said...

Wow, wonderful buy, look at all that lovely floss! Have you ever tried dying floss with walnut ink? Just spray it on the twisted skein and let it soak in as it likes. Gives you a variegated floss in a muted colour. Give it a try with a smaller skein and see if you like the look. Happy dying and stay warm! Deb

Friendship Crossing said...

Beautiful colors and they look very professional! I have quite a fondness for floss too! Yep, that's a LOT of floss you have there!

Warm hugs,
Tanya

Margs Primitive Quilts said...

Gorgeous shades of primitive colors now. You did an amazing job!I LoVe those shades too in my needle punch and stitchery.
Marg

Margs Primitive Quilts said...

I am new to your blog . I LoVe all your posts. I will be back :)
Thanks... Marg