More dyeing and spinning!

I am getting tired of this winter weather, but at least I am getting lots of playtime with my wool! The more I work with the Texel fleece I got two years ago the more I like it. I originally thought it would only be good for experimenting but as I spin more and more of it I am thinking of trying it for some socks. I would love to use the khaki colour that I got from onion skins in an iron mordant for a sweater but I don't think I will be able to spin enough of it on my drop spindle without losing my mind!

I did a batch of black bean dye. I don't think it is going to be very wash/light fast which is too bad as I got a lovely purplish blue colour from it. I tried small amounts in various mordants and after baths and got everything from a "glacier" blue to a light purple. I spun four different variations of this dye into singles and then made a 4 ply sock weight yarn from it. The finished yarn is very pretty. I still have quite a bit of the purplish stuff left to spin and I will make a 4 ply sock yarn out of it.

This is the finished yarn from that experiment . . .



And the "khaki" colour from the onion skins/iron. These pictures show it much less green than it actually is. I want to get 4 slightly different shades of this colour to ply into a sock weight yarn. If I get my spinning wheel build before I run out of this fleece I might spin a heavier yarn and make a sweater for myself, I just love this colour!