Hand Painted Fiber

I've been working on painting roving and yarn. Deb Menz's book Color in Spinning talks about using a stencil brush to paint fiber. Here's my first attempt:

This is some BFL roving. Here's what it looks like after drying:

I had thought about just listing the roving in the shop as is, but I was anxious to see what it would look like and just spun it up myself. Just have to list it as handspun, I guess.

Before when I "painted" yarn or roving I used a squirt bottle to apply the color. I've also dyed it using the space dyeing method in glass containers. You're kind of limited in the number of colors that way, though. My roaster will only hold six of the particular containers I use. It seems like you have more control over where the color goes with the brush. And you can use lots more colors! I also seem to have a tendency to use more dye than is needed with the squirt bottle which can cause a problem with the colors running. Using a brush seemed to help. I also did a couple of skeins of sock yarn this way. Instead of the stencil brush, though, I tried a regular paint brush. Made things go a little faster maybe. You can see the sock yarns here and here.

I'm planning on getting out the carder later this afternoon to work on some more batts. Maybe I'll have some pictures of them next time.