Learning to Dye Naturally

Farmer Gal and I tried our hand at natural dyeing yesterday. Now don't get worried. That's dyeing with a "y" not an "i". BIG difference. Never confuse the two!

We went to a natural dyeing workshop sponsored by the Black Swamp Spinners Guild in Northwest Ohio, where we learned to dye fiber with various plant material and other natural things. It should have taken us about two hours to get there. But thanks to the ever-correct Mapquest, it took three.

But I shall not complain about that because it was one more hour in an air conditioned car and not out in the Ohio summer sun. At 11 a.m., this was the temperature:

I quit looking after that. I simply didn't want to know.

We broke up into groups and tried our hand at dyeing with all sorts of things, including walnuts,

indigo,

and marigolds.

Then we over dyed the marigold with cochineal and got this stunning orange/red color.

My dyeing partner took another skein of the marigold dyed yarn and over dyed it in indigo to get this fabulous green color:

Maybe if I had studied the color chart more in high school art class instead of making silly doodles, I wouldn't have been so utterly shocked at the whole blue/yellow/green concept.

I felt very much like Ma Ingalls out on the prairie dyeing wool with items gathered from nature. Then I got back into my air conditioned car to drive home and was reminded how very happy I am to be living in this century!