Dreamy Indigo Dyed BFL

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A couple of weekends ago I went out to my friend Carla's for a natural dye day. I decided to just focus on indigo and dyed a shirt, some yarn I thought had no acrylic in it (I was wrong), and some mixed BFL fiber.

The yarn was dissapointing, it turned a blue-grey at it's most saturated and then 98% of the color rinsed out.

The BFL fiber, however became the most beautiful blue. The BFL fiber started as a mix of oatmeal and black. I dipped it just once and the oatmeal turned to a warm light blue.

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I spun and knit a little and I am so happy with the result. The dark parts of the BFL weave in and out of the blue making a beautiful semi solid.

Since I have a couple of pounds of the mixed BFL in my stash I want to go back to the indigo pot and dip some 2x and some 3x and use the tonal yarns in a single project. Sigh.

A downside I always find any time I dye fiber is how roughed up the surface of the fiber gets. My dyed fiber always looks like a cat has dragged it around the house after vanquishing it in battle.

Do you have tips for keeping the surface of my fiber tidy when I dye?