2 October 2003

Dye Bath

I spent about another two hours last night working on my caul. It is coming along nicely. I have designed a simple vine and leaf pattern for the band. I'm not sure if I will use it or just leave the band plain. What do you think??

I have just spent the last 15 minutes hand agitating a dye bath for the cloak I am making. It's made from two op shop single bed wool blankets. They have that overall pink, green and brown check that old wool blankets have. I'd already used one box of dye on it, which did a pretty good job, changed the colour to a reasonable light brown, you can still see the check pattern but not the colours. However, it was a bit blotchy, it really needed two boxes (but they only had one in the shop), so I've just put it in another box of dye. That should give me a good dark brown colour and good colour coverage. The blankets cost a total of $12 plus $30 for the dye bath. So a total of $42AU for a slightly larger than half circle, pure wool cloak. Not bad. I am thinking of putting a cotton guard along the bottom (because its a bit short at the back) and maybe some wool embroidery up the front two edges, maybe a nice simple vine and leaf pattern (I know, same as the caul, but vine and leaf covers SOOOO many times and cultures, it's very versitile.

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