A-dyeing we will go

Last Saturday thirteen of us local fiber artists (plus a few from elsewhere) met up at Wabash Woollen Works for a natural dye workshop. I've been organizing this for several months and felt a bit anxious about it even though once everyone who wanted to go had signed up and paid the fee, it was really out of my hands. A good time was had by one and all, with gorgeous, saturated colors from every pot.

Eight of the pots were set up outside under an overhang, while two were inside on the stove (only because Lisa has only eight stand-alone induction burners). The weather cooperated, so while it was warm, it wasn't unbearable in the shade. We helped collect spent hibiscus blossoms and fresh marigold flowers from the garden (which was at its peak). The other outside pots were for Queen Anne's lace, black-eyed Susan, onion skins, walnut, hollyhock, and staghorn sumac. Inside, we worked with madder and with eucalyptus leaves.

(What dye material that isn't used immediately, like these hibiscus blossoms, is laid out on a screen to dry.)

The outside pots simmered their dye materials, then the dye stuff was removed and the yarn (merino) added. Inside, the eucalyptus had been simmering for *days* (burner turned off at night) and the leaves were left in the pot when the yarn was added. The madder required more attention, so as the most anal person in the group, I volunteered along with another who later paled in comparison to my anal-ness. We had to mix up the madder, then add it to the pot, then monitor the pot so that the temperature stayed between 140 and 160; above 160 ruins the dye. And the yarn had to simmer in the madder dye bath for three hours.

Mixing madder

Looks like spaghetti in tomato sauce

The yarn picks up the fragrance from the eucalyptus

Rinsing the eucalyptus dyed yarn meant shaking out all the leaf fragments. Similarly, there were crumbs of madder clinging to the yarn in our pot, most of which rinsed out. I think a change to the protocol I would make is to create more of a paste with the madder, then sieve it to trap the larger bits before adding it to the dye bath. But that is just (anal) me.

One very important lesson I learned is the more dye materials one uses, the more saturated the color. All the natural dyeing I have done to this point has resulted in muted colors. No longer - I am dedicated to the new adage that, when it comes to dye stuff, more is never enough.

As part of our fee, we each got two skeins of yarn. Then we could purchase additional skeins for $5 each. I chose one of each color, then picked up more madder because I don't have any natural dyed reds. I also purchased ten buttons (one of which I see from the photo is flawed) that are made from deer antler, for the Lempi sweater.

I'm glad that this workshop is over, and yet I am already plotting the next field trip we can take to WWW.