Wool Experiment

Could have titled the post "Marrying Wool" or "Taming the Red" but those have certain expectations in mind.  Wasn't sure how this was going to turn out so experiment was the best choice of words.

The 1909 Horse antique adaptation has many different red wool motifs and blocks in it.  As I'm not so fond of bright red, even tho there is some in the original rug (seen at the bottom of the post) thought I'd tame the brights by using some dark red and neutralizing with some green.

Early in my rughooking adventure wool stash began at the thrift shop (dismantled, washed and dried).  Most of that wool was flat as opposed to textures.  Yet that flat wool comes in handy even now when hooking an antique adaptation because milled wool for we hooking addicts wasn't available in the 1800s and early 1900s.  It was union suits, army uniforms, work clothes and whatever homespun or silk was available.

This morning I gathered a bunch of various red wool and for good measure a little green to hopefully tame the red.

In a pot of water with Ivory detergent (NO bleach) it went on my stove to simmer for well over half an hour but didn't keep track of time so may have been longer.  Would just stir and check the water to see how much color was being released.

Once a lot of color had been purged from the wool a good amount of white vinegar was glugged into the pot to set the color.  It simmered (not boiled) for a while longer until there was almost no color left in the pot at all.  

The pot stayed in a safe place to cool down while I ran my errands.  Upon my return home I drained the pot, rinsed and squeezed by hand the wool, filled up the pot with the wool, water and put in my washer to spin the remainder of water out.  THEN, into the dryer on LOW with a couple fluffy towels to dry.

Below and on the left side is what wouldn't fit comfortably in the pot.  But you can see the color results comparing the right to the left.  Seems the green made more of a change than the red.  Yet there is also some change in the red as well if you compare the top photo.

Hopefully some of the re-purposed wool will go nicely in 1909 Horse.  The original antique can be seen below.  BUT, not the bright; eventually there will be use for that somewhere I'm sure.

Can you believe it is March 1st????  Didn't we just get over Christmas?  This evening is the calm before the storm.  High winds, lots of rain and flooding is supposed to begin sometime during the evening.  

Saundra