Once again I had the pleasure of dyeing the yarn for the children at Green Meadows Waldorf School. I was given the yarn early in the summer and finished it just in time. The colors that resulted from coaxing the dye pots all summer long were exciting, mysterious and hard all rolled into one. Among the dye stuffs I used were, Onion Skins, Cochineal, Indigo, Black Walnut, Cutch, Wolfe Lichen & Goldenrod. If you have a question about the color combinations I will do my best to remember. I used Cream of Tartar and Alum as the fixative. All were warm/hot baths except for the cutch which was cold (the tan color).
There were two types of yarn that I dyed.
Brown Sheep - Lambs Pride Single ply worsted (on the left)
&
BartlettYarn - Fisherman 2-ply yarn (on the right).
Both are in unbleached 4oz skiens.
Now, I have been working with Indigo for many years now. Natural, cakes, freeze dried, so I don't call myself a novice anymore. Dyeing with Indigo is always tricky. Sometimes its just not ment for certain yarns, like the Bartlett fisherman yarn. The wonderful natural oils that they leave in there just prevent the indigo from biting. I even presoaked and scoured the yarn with no avail. It ran clear but when it dried it still crocked off, when from the same pot I pulled the Brown sheep yarn with no crocking.
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