Dye Experiment

I had a bag of lovely mohair from a little Angora goat I raised back in New Hampshire. I've been saving it for years and decided it was time to dye and spin it. Remembering a dye project that I saw on a wool tour years ago in New Hampshire, I tightly stuffed the mohair, 

some soft, clean, creamy wool,

 and some silk hankies (which are "are piles of individual lighter-than-air silk cocoons, spread on a form to dry" - read more here)

into mason jars.

Then I carefully trickled three shades of acid dye down inside each jar. I used blue, teal, and turquoise. Here is an article about acid dyeing, if you are interested. I hoped that each color would stay a little separate and overlap a little with the other colors for even more shades. Because the fibers were packed in tightly, some parts would receive more dye than other parts. 

I love chance and random happenings. At least inside my dye jars, I mean. 

I added some water and vinegar to each jar, and placed them all in a water bath on the stove to simmer. Although you can't tell from this photo, each jar contains all three fibers and all three colors. 

In the next post, I'll show you the results of my dye experiment.