Well I gave kettle dyeing a try this morning after reading what I could find on line, and I'd say the results were so-so. I used Cushings dyes because I have a lot of them in different colors and I have all my dyeing equiptment already. I pre-wetted the roving so it was squishy wet but there was no water on top of it in the pot. Then I mixed and poured on the dyes. I used sky blue, green and canary. I was a bit afraid of the dyes running together on the bottom and making mud, so I didn't use as much dye as I should have. Next time I'll use at least a third more than I did this time. Some of the colors must have seperated in the dyes and run together because I got some purple spots. Maybe there's a little red in the canary yellow and it mixed with the sky blue. But there are some pretty big white spots and I want to avoid that next time. I saw one tutorial where the person added each dye individually and then waited for it to be absorbed before she added the next. That might work better. Another thing I should have done was squish the dye into the roving more before I put the pot on the stove; I'm sure I would have gotten better results. Anyway, after all the dyes were poured on I brought the pot up to steaming without letting it boil and then left it for about half an hour. The dye was exhausted by that point so I went ahead and dumped it all into the sink, rinsed it well and then hung it in the bathroom to dry. All in all it was a learning experience, and I'm sure it will be dry and ready to go as soon as the wheel gets here on Monday.
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