If you go back to the archives, and look at my blog for May of this year, you will see that I am experimenting with kool-aid dying of fleeces.Today, I had a chance to pick out the fleece that we dyed in the bag at that time.
This is Abigails fleece. I chose it because she made a real mess of her fleece with hay - so , if
I screwed it up - I wouldn't be upset by the loss of a nice fleece.
Here's how we did it. I laid the raw, shorn, fleece out on the ground - and proceeded to soak it down with hot water.
Then, I poured kool-aid over it in various areas (look at the pictures from May).
Then - I put it in a clear plastic garbage bag - sealed the bag - and left it in the hot sun for about a week. YES - it was NOT pleasant smelling when I opened the bag.
I then proceeded to wash the fleece as normal.
My theory is that the lanolin closest to the sheep's skin does NOT soak up the dye, and any dye in those areas will wash out when the fleece is washed. I was correct - yeah!!! Now - also - the green and blue do not hold very well. Some of it stayed - but most of it washed out. The best colour is the red, which stayed very nicely, and the orange stayed pretty much as well.
Today - I finally opened this fleece - and picked it. By the way - this is a lambs fleece - it was
lovely - the crimp is very nice - and oh boy - is this soft.
I'm very pleased with the process - it was a fun experiment.
This ended up being a 2 pound fleece after all was done - and will be for sale for $25.
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