Dyed threads with Inktense

I mentioned yesterday that I'd been playing about with my new set of Inktense paints. These are the skeins of white crochet cotton that I experimented with dyeing. I painted two skeins with a mix of yellow, red and orange, and a third with blues and green.

The results were mixed, but overall positive. As you can see, the colours aren't in-your-face vivid, but soft and rather pretty. I probably could achieve bolder colours with applying a second layer. How I'd dyed these was to use a water spray and mist the skeins first of all. Then I applied the Inktense and allowed the crochet cotton to dry out on top of the radiator. Then, as the Inktense needs a decent amount of heat for the dye to set, I carefully ironed the skeins. That worked with the orange-yellow skeins, but when I wrapped the blue-green skein around the plastic holder some dye did come off and stain my fingertips. Maybe I hadn't ironed that as much as I should've? Never-mind, it's good enough to use on my banner, the one I started on Wednesday at the Stitch Art workshop. Speaking of which ...

I'm making progress. I took this picture earlier on today, and since then I've used chain stitch to embroider 'Let Cities Grow' and am continuing to add more leaves and vegetation. I've been sewing while listening to podcasts, and I think I might start on 'The Archers' now as I've several episodes to catch up with. Yup, that's my idea of an enjoyable Friday evening. Stitching, relaxing, nibbling on a chocolate mini egg or two. Other people can go out clubbing till all hours. I'll stretch out on the sofa instead!

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