Inquisitive Felines and Fibers

A week this past Saturday we had our first dyeing party of the year. It was a humid, hot day with very little breeze which made it a true act of love…or craziness. I discovered that my lightweight canopy doesn’t do well stored in the car in hot weather. The plastic connectors lost their rigidity and it became a free-flowing nightmare in the yard. Happily one of the wonderful women attending brought her canopy so we had  more shade. Really, only two women did any serious dyeing and it was great to see what they brought.

This is avocado chunks making the dye. She used a rhubarb leaf mordant, of which we were all very cautious around as it is toxic, and the results were very interesting. Some of the yarns were dyed in just the rhubarb and some were dyed in the avocado.

These are the results from those two dye sets. I love the variation. Another woman brought natural dyes and they were great fun to watch as well.

This is a madder combination to dye deep read. I didn’t believe that a natural dye could really pull off a deep, rich color, but I was very much mistaken. I’m looking forward to getting some of these dyes to work with next time. Oh, and I’ll actually have some wool prepared to dye…thought I had some, but I discovered that morning that I was  mistaken.

This is the end result of the madder dye. It’s lovely and she also took a gallon jar home with yarn and a blue natural dye home for solar dyeing which came out quite nicely as well. I’m hoping for nicer weather for the next party so that we aren’t melting into our chairs and keeping our distance from the dye pots. It’s too much fun to waste on a steamy day!