Blue to Dye For



Kathi stirring the indigo pot to mix the ingredients

 The natural dyeing workshop is an annual meeting in May with the Las Vegas Fiber Arts Guild. Originally they held it up on Mt. Charleston, just outside the city where it was nice and cool. But it was a pain carting everything up there and then setting up and then bringing it all back down the mountain. So for the last several years Nancy has hosted the extravaganza in her front yard. Her set up is unbelieveable and gets better every year. It’s getting to be a burden for her as she nears 80 and requires help from others in the guild to keep it operating, but what a tradition it’s been.

A row of about 10 propane stoves with 2 pots each for dyeing. Two outdoor craft sinks for rinsing and a drying rack. Crock pots have been added for Kool Aid dyeing and this past year they added a tent with indigo dyeing. Plus Nancy serves tacos for lunch, and has tents set up while we wait for the pots to do their thing. People sit around and spin, knit and talk up a storm.

Bev and I were so taken with the indigo dyeing that she is going to try it in her dyeing efforts in Cedar City on Saturday, October 15. Some of the complexity of the indigo dyeing has been taken out with kits. We were able to pick some up on clearance at JoAnne’s and also found some at Dharma’s on the Internet.



Skimming the waste materials off the surface



The yarn has to stay submerged in the solution, not agitated.

Then when it is brought to the surface it is green.

A person quickly lets it drip out as you don’t want oxygen to get into the solution. As oxygen gets to the yarn it oxides the solution on the yarn turning it blue. It’s amazing to watch.

First dip = light blue

If you let the yarn dry a bit then you can redip it to get a darker shade of blue. The blue is the color that was originally used in blue jeans. If you don’t work with plastic gloves it does a great job of dyeing your hands blue too!

Second dip = darker blue

Did We Skip Fall?

Formation in New Mexico on way to Weaving conference

The summer was a busy time with visits with grandchildren, a flight to Wis. for a HS class reunion and catching up with relatives, driving to a weaving conference in Colorado, and working at a pop corn/cotton candy stand at the county fair.

Relatives in southern Wisconsin

  

Relatives in Green Bay area

 

Along the way we (Bev, a weaving friend, and I) participated in a natural dyeing workshop in Las Vegas in May, a tri-loom workshop with our own Cedar City weaving group in July, and a felting program this past week in October.  In Sept. I was back in Las Vegas for a rep weave workshop with Joanne Tallarovic of Flagstaff, AZ.



The fall was warm with above normal temps, and Bob’s garden has done well with swiss chard, kohl rabi, onions, green beans, carrots, and finally tomatoes.  Then this week it abruptly came to an end with snow. Flurries in our backyard and 17 inches in the mountains east of here at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  So the mountains now have their white caps on, and the sheep are back at the University Farm two blocks down the street.