Dyeing Wool Worms Without Knots

Most of us have them, some of us have more than others.  I find it very rewarding to use them up but some bright or white don't work in a worn look, particularly a Magdalena style rug.  Well, unless it is red ~ Magdalena used red in (I think) the majority if not all, of her rugs.  Guess those red union suits got used to the very end (pun intended).

While working on Magdalena's Olde Ducks noticed that my light and off white wool strips soon became either pinkish, yellow, bright white... in other words, not to my liking.  Soooo, it was time to pull out the dye pot and select a bunch of mixed wool strips to overdye.

I had a little of the dye recipe "Olde Patina" left from a dye job in readiness of hooking an antique adaptation I call "Cats Meow.  Since it worked so well with wool for that rug figured I'd overdye some worms with the last of the dye.  There was about 2 tablespoons of the recipe left, just enough to maybe dye close to half a yard.  But, it is a little hard to judge how much wool it is when it is reduced to worms.

I saved this mesh bag from my grandson's summer freezer pop treats knowing it would come in handy for a project such as this where it was important to contain the unruly worms.

 

Below you can see just how white some of my whites were ~ not a pretty sight in a rug if you are doing an aged look. 

The open end was secured.  I used the white clip first but then decided to add the twist as well.

 Here is the wool simmering with just one tablespoon of the recipe.  Since I wasn't sure how much would do the job figured more could be added vs. having it turn out too dark.  And it did need that second tablespoon of dye.

This is an old dryer but love the table that fits inside which allows for the heat flow but the drum doesn't move so the strips don't get tangled.

Next I put a piece of netting on top so no worms would fall thru the holes.  This is the comparison on results from my previous dye job for Cats Meow and the worms dyed today, pretty close I'd say.

The wool looks dark in the photo above, not only what I dyed today but the sample of what I dyed previously.  With dyeing the worms the raw edges of the strips absorb a bit more dye than had it been a half yard solid piece.  If you want to see how it hooked up in "Cats Meow", click on that link and it will take you to my blog post, you'll see it hooks up a mild aged background and I used all of those pieces of wool in the rug that you see stapled to the paper. 

 

Have a great Sunday evening.

 

Saundra

Black Friday

Oh how I stuffed myself yesterday, and did partake of a couple items which are only on my plate once a year.  Frankly, there were a few years when they did not appear on my plate at all until my cholesterol and triglycerides were under control.  So now only once a year I put a small dollop of dressing and mashed potatoes on my plate. 

Since my son and Cathy don't like dark meat I got to bring home the carcass and dark meat.  Today's lunch will be part of a turkey thigh and fresh cooked kale.  This afternoon the process for making turkey rice soup will begin, along with freezing turkey meat for recipes to come.

As there is only Olde Ducks in the process here it is all there is to show you the progress on.  Didn't get many loops pulled since the last time but here it is.

Here is what Magdalena's original looked like.  It is not known if Magdalena hooked two rugs or if one picture was taken of the original and then again later after repairs.  I'm looking at both pictures as I hook mine with my selection of wool and worms.  Trying desperately to reduce the number of already cut wool strips that I can.

As much as I'd love to be working on a second rug at the same time, there are so many bags of wool worms around me which gets unruly at times, just can't bring myself to make the clutter worse.  Maybe a dye pot should be brought out in a day or two just to give me something else to do.

Have a great day everyone.

Saundra