Fleece Lovers Day

What a wonderful day!  Met at Lisa's farm and cleaned fleece.  Joyce, Lisa's sister helped us.

Lisa has a wonderful set up for cleaning fleece right on her back deck. Two washing tubs with drains, and a hot water hose. Couldn't be easier (unless someone else did it!).

Started the day by cleaning an alpaca fleece on a wheel barrow.  Soap, hot water and time was all that was needed.

Then we went to the corral to choose a sheep fleece from last month' s shearing day. A couple of sheared rams were there to great us. Lisa chose one white and one black fleece.

Starting with the white fleece, we first picked bits of straw and dung covered bits out of the fleece. That didn't take too long because the shearing happened to occur after a lot of rain and the sheep were fairly clean. Lucky us.

Then we divided the fleece into two and put it into the two tubs. First step is to do a hot water soak - gets rid of the manure ; second step is to wash the fleece with Sunlight soap - do this twice or more depending on how dirty the fleece is; third step is a water and vinegar soak to neutralize the wool from the basic pH soap; last step is a water rinse. Voila! Glistening fleece!

These steps all take time so there is ample opportunity to visit. We had great conversations and lots of laughs. What a great day!

Bags of fleece stored in Lisa's shed since the shearing in June.

A couple of rams watching us.

"Picking" the fleece.

Outdoor washtubs look great.

Draining the tubs.

The fleece after a couple of washes.

The fleece after the last rinse.

Lisa spinning on her back deck.

Saskatoon dye

One last dye sample to add to the repertoire. I was fortunate to get 3 ice cream pails of culled berries from Alison who has a Saskatoon berry farm. (I also bought 3 pails of good berries to eat. Hunter helped with picking too. Yummy!)

Here is a photo of the glorious colours that they produced. Wow!

Centre yarn is alum mordant.  

Top left is with baking soda, top right is with vinegar.  

Bottom left is with copper sulphate and bottom right is with iron sulphate.

Hunter helps pick berries with his new John Deere gardening gloves.

Dyeing samples

Spent the day dyeing samples of wool. In each dye mixture I placed on chunk of alum mordanted wool roving and one foot of two ply wool yarn (that I had previously spun and plyed) with no mordant.

I used five different plant materials for dye: red cabbage, dried hibiscus flower seed heads, rooibos tea, dandelion flowers, and rhubarb leaves.

To each of the five dyes I tried adding four different chemicals:  baking soda (a base), vinegar (an acid), copper sulphate, and ferrous (iron) sulphate.

To simulate cooking the fibres to incorporate the dye, which usually takes hours, I wrapped each sample in plastic wrap and microwaved them for one minute on high. The microwave simulation will not produce as intense a hue, but it will give an idea of the colour.

Red cabbage liquid after being boiled.

Red cabbage turns turquoise blue with baking soda and fushia with vinegar.

 with copper = purple, 

with iron = dark blue                                 

Hibiscus flower tea is cherry red.

with baking soda = muddy green

with vinegar = bright pink

with copper = pink

with iron = dark pink

Rooibos tea is very orange-brown

with baking soda = more orange

with vinegar = less orange

with copper = green-orange

with iron = sludge brown

Rhubarb leaf dye

with baking soda = orange-brown

with vinegar = pale yellow

with copper = light green

with iron = light brown

Dandelion flower dye

with baking soda = yellow

with vinegar = muddy yellow

with copper = green

with iron = muddy brown-black

Sample drying on rack after microwaving and rinsing in water.

Generally, the baking soda gave a greener colour and the vinegar gave a redder colour.  However, the vinegar dye did not set, most of it washed out during the rinsing!  Boo Hoo!!

Generally the copper sulphate adds a greener colour and the iron a browner colour.  

It is evident from these samples that the alum mordant made little to no difference.  I am not sure if it will make a bigger difference in the longer cooking and darker colour setting.  I hope so, otherwise all my work mordanting roving with alum was not worthwhile!

Closing reception

The World Credit Union Conferenced conducted the farewell reception at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. A beautiful and expansive venue. It was a gorgeous night for sitting outside as a small rain had cooled the oppressive heat wave. Food stalls representing the various areas of Canada had traditional foods. Yummy!! Great evening.

Mackenzie King Estate

In 1928, King moved his summer home to Moorside, where he received distinguished guests such as Churchill and Roosevelt. Dedicated to the people of Canada upon King's death visitors can see his cottage, formal flower beds, rose garden, rock garden, pond, trees and picturesque ruins.

Ottawa River Cruise

Tour day began with an Ottawa River Tour. Lots to see from the water. A few brave (or stupid?) souls traveled on the upper deck in full sun. Boy was it hot. We appreciated the mist off the Rideau Falls! Temperature in Ottawa is breaking records - 35C with humidex equivalent to 45C!

Lunch at a gorgeous tea house in Gatineau, the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. Picturesque flower gardens in the back yard. Most people enjoyed the air conditioned view, but Rita, Kathy and I wandered through the flowers. Some interesting ones that were unfamiliar to us.

Reception at Chateau Laurier

An elegant reception at the Chateau Laurier. The Laurier was built in the early 1900s. The grand opening was set for April of 1912. The owner was in Britain on business and needed to get back to Canada for the opening, so he bought a reduced fare passage on the fastest steamer of the day, the Titanic. Unfortunately he never made it. You know the rest of the story.