Dyeing Day

I have been busily preparing for a natural dyeing workshop I am holding on Sunday. We will use five different dyes from Pure Tinctoria and then modify some of the dyed wool yarns to produce related shades. If all goes to plan we'll each have a record sheet with twenty different shades on it, and know how we got them! Each participant will also choose a hank of dyed yarn to take home that is big enough to make something with. We are mainly using Blue Faced Leicester yarn but there will be a few others in there for comparison too. Hopefully, then, I can show off after next Sunday and post the samples here.

So far I have printed out the record sheets (and managed to list a dye we are not even going to use) and to mordant all the yarns with alum (including one batch which I stupidly threw some old yellow wool into - the yellow ran all through the virginal white which rendered it useless for producing accurate samples from). I eventually got it all done and dried on the washing line...then counted it out only to find I was one set of yarns short for what we need. Bad Day at Black Rock.

Meanwhile I have been working on exhibition stuff. The image is one of a series of ten linked small canvases of leaf shapes combining acrylics with stitchery on silk.