Dying in the heat

Onion skin dyed wool

My wool drying tree

Inspired by my friend Maggie’s photos of her solar dying on Facebook, I dived under the dinette to get out my 3 solar dying jars. Last summer was far too cool & wet in the north to solar dye, so it was 2 years ago we last did any. I had 2 years worth of onion skins to use up so have done 6 jars which have given a nice pale orange coloured yarn and fibre. Plus, I consulted my friend Jenny Dean’s dying book for ideas of other plants to use. There are quite a few blackberries out which aren’t very palatable yet, but idea for the dye bath and that gave a nice pinkish yarn after about 4 days on the roof in the blistering heat.

blackberry's dying

Wool dying in jars & felted onion skin bag

Last Saturday I attended Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers for a dying day, with chemical dyes. I joined in the Guild project to Shibori dye some fabric in shades of red ready for the Guild’s 40^th anniversary later in the year. Some of my spinning projects are going to be on display on the Guild stand at Fibre-East this coming weekend.

Ruby Shibori dying drying

Stiring the ruby dye pots

Yarn & fibre in the steamer

Ooops, I splashed red dye  on Fiona

Dryed & ready to use from the steamer

We had a surprise visit from some of our motor bike club, the KGT a couple of Sundays ago. They’d been for a run out for breakfast and then on to us for tea & cake. We made plans for them to join us when we go up Foxton Locks later in the year, once our house sale has gone through.

KGT visitors

At the moment on his stretch of the Grand Union Canal we are OK for water, however, we’ve had notification from the Canal & River Trust that lots of the northern canal have already had to close as the reservoirs are dry. So we’re going to need LOTS of rain to get us all moving again.

We are really enjoying being in & around Leighton Buzzard to catch up with friends before we head north.