dyeing yarn/fiber in the saori way

This past weekend I held a dyeing workshop for the mavens of the fiber forest. Talented spinner Heather  who sells her hand spun skiens to shops here in central/ northern california, showed me some awesome yarn she spun. The photo shows a core spun elastic with hand dyed wool. You can see the relaxed skein, and then it stretched to it's full length. This is a talented woman and I want to spin some of this amazing"elastic stretchy" yarn and weave with it on my SAORI loom. Heather dyed some kid mohair locks with acid dyes in jewel tones as well. Heather and her talented mom are both spinners dyers and "fiber artists" How nice is that? Talent for  the fiber arts defiantly run in her family.

Heather's relaxed  hand spun skein

The yarn fully extended. Amazing!

Candance applied her "free form" SAORI philosophy weaving techniques to her cellulose  fibers hand painted skein by dying intuitively . she wants to use the hand painted cotton for saori weaving warps. Not getting hung up on thinking to much and worrying she painted 5 or 6 skeins with procion dyes . Her skeins  are still waiting to be rinsed, more photos to follow in a few days, they were  beautiful.

Candance's beautiful dyed skein

 MY SKEINS AFTER RINSING  STILL BRIGHT NOT DARK OR MUDDIED 

DARKER BEFORE

I hand painted some skeins of various cottons with procion dyes after soaking the skeins in a soda ash presoak, I was amazed that the colors came out so bright after the final rise and a 24 hour waiting period of letting the dye set. The cotton 5/2 cotton will be used  for warp for weaving .These were really dark skeins and i was kind of disappointed at first after the rise, but  the original colors did strike and held and  the darker colors washed away! Just the opposite of acid dyes and protein fiber reaction when dyed. The wipe up rag/towel even came out cool, Candance said ,"hum if we cut it up the towel in strips we can use it for weft in a weaving for texture". cool saori idea candance.
This was a first time to try dyeing a hand paint cotton skein with out steaming to set, it works beautifully with procion dyes. usually i have used silk or wool etc and acid dyes. only wash the cotton skeins in cold water though the life of the finished artical or project  too, that way if the colors  bleed they will not set. Thank you heather and Candance for a great mavens dye day. AND to my husband Lee for setting up  the heavy tables, tanks pots and preparing the areas too.

 My finished cotton dyed skeins of 5/2 and textured yarns

dried dyed mega cotton skeins and clean up towel