December 2023 – Indigo Dyeing

We met at Anne Dunham’s for Indigo a dye day last Sunday.

It was windy and rainy, so Anne let us set up the dye pot in her studio.  The pot dyed great.  Sharolene had 3 or 4 warps, Sandy had 2 or 3 warps, and Anne had 5 or 6 skeins of gray wool to dye.  So, we set the pot up and then eat lunch. When lunch was done, we started dyeing.  We finished dyeing by 3.  Anne rinsed her wool and after 3 or 4 rinses the water was clear.

We couldn’t swing the warps or hang them on the fence because of the rain and wind. It didn’t matter though because we took the yarn from the dye pot to a wet pot. The wet pot was where we wrung the excess dye water out.  We then put the steaming damp yarn into a dry pot.  By the time the yarn made it to the dry pot, it had gotten enough oxygen.

The other thing we learned was it is easier to transport the dye bucket inside the large blue tubs with 2 people, not one person carrying the dye bucket alone.