vivid bamboo

Okay- bamboo is notoriously tricky to dye into saturated colors, but this is as good as it gets (for me), fiber friends.
Spruce green, which is actually darker than the picture shows! I was a little bummed out by how parts of the roving are dusky blue instead of green- so I did add a touch of golden yellow to the dye pot after an hour or so of watching the bamboo get darker and darker. There are still bits of dusk blue, but since I'm blending this fiber into batts, I'm not going to sweat it. Another color which always turns out marvelously is "Gold," which rinses into buttery lemony yellow.Next time, I may add a pinch of brown to make it a true gold, but I'm thrilled with this vivid chunk of bamboo. I also dyed a pound of rosy pink and another of dark gray, but I'm still waiting for those too to dry.

I have several lbs. of Procrion MX dye that I bought when a local fiber business was going out of sale, but I've put those aside in favor of Cushings direct dyes, which only require salt during the dye bath and dish soap for rinsing. The fiber rinses clear much faster than Procrion ever has for me. When my soda ash arrives, I'll crack out the Procrion dyes for my last lb. of bamboo roving.

So far, I haven't had the courage to dye Soysilk. I think it's beautiful just the way it is: warm honey-colored beige. Why screw up a good thing? Tencel is proving a bit trickier with dyes than bamboo (is it the stiffer texture?), but an extra wash with Synthropol before dyeing helped me dye a lb. of medium royal blue last week.

Today, my fiber plans are minimal. I've got to wrangle last year's taxes, finish a few batt colorways, and plot a handspun gameplan for the rest of the week. Plus, packaging and shipping has taken me nearly four hours this morning! I had a crazy-busy-battblasting weekend, for sure.

Off topic: I took a few hours last night to make something non-woolish: slippers! I used a pattern from Ithinksewdotcom. My mom made a pair too- we only improvised a little- adding batting in the soles for a bit of squish.
You can tell I haven't sewn anything in a while- my seams are hideous!