Solar Dyeing Wool Report!

 On Friday of Memorial Day Weekend 2025 I put three jars on the deck railing with a little over ten grams of combed top of un-named breed of wool in for solar dyeing.  In one jar were avocado pits and peels.  The second jar had red onion skins, a lot of tiny ones that I found in the bottom of a potato bin at Aldi!  The third jar had four hibiscus herbal tea bags--a bit of a waste of good tea, but!  The jars were all filled with water to almost the top and some plastic stuffed in on top to submerge the wool in the water and dye materials.

Four weeks later I have opened the jars, emptied everything into the 13-quart stainless steel bowl my parents gave us for a wedding gift (our mother gave one to each of my siblings who all married in the same twelve months period all those years ago!) I then rinsed the wool and set it to drying.

This is what we have:

The white fiber on top is where we started.  Sample number one under the white is the avocado solar dye.  It actually did take up some color.   Sample number two is the red onion dye.  Sample number three is the hibiscus tea.  That gave the most color.

So-for an experiment which held high hopes but not much in the line of expectations, I am pretty happy!  

This weekend the Tour de Fleece starts.  One of goals I have for Tour de Fleece is to card each of these samples then spin them into a tiny skein of yarn then knit a sample and see what we have.  Yay for Tour de Fleece and goals!

The wonderful Columbia Spinners who have accepted me into their midst have a great plan for every Saturday during TdF for learning new skills.  During all the other days I am hoping to really improve my spinning to create a more consistent yarn so it will actually be useful for knitting.

Last year's Tour de Fleece  product yarn is not yet all used up. I did knit a shawl with most of it that initially I did not like at all.  Now, months after the end of the Spin It To Knit It Along, I am feeling somewhat better about it.  The remaining yarn from last year is now in the back of my mind for using to weave a shawl sometime this year.  We shall see.

It is Fireworks Season! Again!!

Multiple times during the year since we have moved to South Carolina, we have seen many many little mobile fireworks stores.  They are everywhere!!  They moved in nearly a month ago.  Again.

Here is one of them:

This happens to be the back of the fireworks trailer that is in the Neighborhood Walmart parking lot.  If you need any pyrotechnics, come on down!!!

Any occasion seems to be the time for fireworks here.  A few times in the past few months we have been sitting in our upstairs tv room and have first heard, then seen, fireworks across the pond from us.  This past weekend we heard then Dear One stepped to the front window so see them two streets over from us. I have decided that on Independence Day I will just lie in bed having opened the blinds and just watch from the bug-free convenience of our comfy bed!

May you all have a safe and happy Independence Day!