Dye Day

So in the midst of the pottery, the shows and the moving....my Weaving Guild here in Charlottesville had a dye day!  I do love dyeing but rarely do it by myself.  It is just so much more fun with a group.  Maybe it's all the knowledge shared or maybe it's just because some things have to simmer for quite awhile for good color and its nice to have someone to jabber with while I wait!

It was a glorious Fall day. Joanie, the current president of the Guild, had us out to her farm to set up. An AMAZING place. A big beautiful old house with gorgeous grounds. And animals!

Lot's of hard work.....

.....and waiting and talking...

Leads to beautiful results!!
Both these skeins were OVERDYED, meaning dyed in another color and dyed again, with indigo.  Unfortunately I don't know what the first color was (yellow for sure on the right, so maybe goldenrod or annato....)  But what fantastic results!

I prepared for the day by measuring out a warp of alpaca in sections to be dyed in different colors.  This will become a scarf.

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From left to right: 
 Walnut, indigo, tumeric, hibiscus overdyed with a weak indigo, and annato.


My colors did not turn out as vivid as some. But natural dyes can be amazingly bright.


While at Fall Fiber Festival I managed to slip away to peek at some of the other vendors. When I saw the glorious colors of Black Twig Farm I was amazed! And knew I had to make a purchase. Generally I try to avoid buying yarn (since I spin and don't knit much!) unless I plan on weaving with it. But I couldn't walk away from her beautiful examples without taking some home with me.

These yarns are mill spun of Churro, a navajo sheep raised on Rachel's farm outside Crozet, right here in Virginia!

The colors were created with natural elements with a "mordant" added to modify the color:

From left to right
cochineal (a dried beetle that is ground up) with tin, coreopsis with tin, osage orange with alum, madder root with alum and black walnut with iron

Back home I have 25 bookmarks on my loom!  Nearly half way finished.

(Blogger is driving me CRAZY today.  Pictures everywhere, that frame line showing up where I dont' want it.  This post took WAY more time then it should have. GRRRRRRRRR.)

This weekend it's Shearing at Juniper Moon Farm and Greg will be home for 5 days!