Green Day 2008: Part One

I want green. Much more green. Now, in natural dyeing, as far as I have seen from others and witnessed in my own process, greens are best accomplished by over-dyeing yellow with indigo. I will admit. I get lazy. No, not lazy, that is way too harsh. I get tired. When I grow tired, and the 2-step process lurks in the corner, the greens walk right out the door. Not anymore though. I am going to try really hard to take it slower. I will have more green this year.

Mission Green: A little peak at what we have been dyeing.

Day One. I mordanted 1000 grams of bluefaced leicester aran yarn.
Day Two. I dyed this yarn yellow with 4% fustic.
Day Three. I fired up ye olde indigo pot.


I dipped the yellow yarn.


See the beautiful green yarn? Emerald.


And, here are the samples you may remember. This fiber was dyed with flowers from our dye garden. I am so pleased with the range of greens.

Right now, as I write, there are many more greens that we dyed in my bathroom "oxygenating". In indigo dyeing, it is best to allow the indigo to sit on the fiber for as long as possible before washing. In 3 or 4 days, I will wash the indigo out. And post are more comprehensive report about the greens that we dyed and the final results.

I have been playing around with a few ideas and would love to get your feedback. This concerns mainly two programs that I would like to develop over the coming year. Now, these ideas are very rough, so play nice.

1. The Verb for Keeping Warm Natural Dye Program --

For $x, over a year's time, you would receive a sampling of natural dyes, fiber (or yarn), instructions how to use them, and be a participant in an online forum, building knowledge about natural dyes, contributing feedback and photographs of how your dyes turn out, relay your experience, etc. By the of this year, you will be a natural dye master and have a totally unique stash upon which to draw from when creating new things.

2. The Verb for Keeping Warm Fleece Program --

This is heavily inspired by my trip last Summer to the Black Sheep Gathering and the joy I have had learning about different kinds of sheep, and spinning different kinds of fleece. In this program, for $x, you would receive different types of fleece over a year's time. My idea is is to visit farms, meet the growers, and the sheep. Post interviews with the growers online. Purchase the fleece from the grower. Clean the fleeces, and pass along pieces of the fleece to you. Again, the idea would be to have an online forum to see how everyone is processing their fleece, how you are spinning it, knitting it, etc. Of course, the amount you would like to contribute to such a forum would be up to you. This program would support a wonderful connection between the growers and spinners. You will learn how to process a fleece, how to choose a fleece, etc. Moreover, you will have tried many different types of fleece, expanding your knowledge of materials.

Well, that's all I have today. I would love to hear any feedback. I would especially love it if you would be interested in participating in either of the above programs. I think they will be a lot of fun.