The Day Before

Ok so I have my final list of pot colors for tomorrow.

* Indigo - blue , 2 - because the freeze dried Indigo oxidizes too quickly so I will switch off pots as one re-deoxidizes.

* Alkanet - blue/purple - if I mixed it properly, we will see tomorrow. I am currently soaking the roots in rubbing alcohol and will boil up first thing tomorrow with a full pot of water. Its my first time doing this one so I am excited

* Henna - yellow

* Flower heads - yellow , lots of different flower heads ( Marigold, black eyes susan's, some mystery yellow flower head that looks like queen anns lace, and then I have "booster" yellows. Small jars of color that I will pour into the pot as the day goes on.

1 small pot of yellow onion skins and 1 small pot of calendula

* Madder - orange red, a very strong pot that I use the coffee grinder to chop up small roots that I purchased last year. Sadly my patch of madder I started last year did not come up this Spring.

* Cochineal - red/pink, I might add madder to this and some soda too to make it a deeper red.

They will get a variety of greens and purples when they overdye with two colors.

I have my tent all ready to go up and I will have out my spinning wheel & of corse all my dye books. Unfortunately I think I will be the most excited one there tomorrow so I might look like a freak but that is ok with me. I love color.

Getting ready for Dye Day

So once again I am preparing for my third annual dye day. Its a lot to do - I have about 7 dyes. There are only 8 or so adults coming this year. I'm glad for the volume break this year - usually its around 15 adults. There are always many kids. My sons love to show them around the pond/stream.

Here are my empty pots ready to be filled.

Here is all the dye that I boiled up over the past two years and stored in the freezer/ref.

This is a yellow flower that spreads out for acres here.  The orange one is Marigold.

I found an amazing orange dye... Pear tree leafs! Crazy. Look at this color.  The one on the right is Henna.  Beautiful and filled with the essence of summer.

So now I have mordant all the silks,felt and wool yarn.  We might have a few thunder storms but the weather is looking promising (thunderstorms come late in the day around here).  Wish me luck and I hope to have the days photos up sometime on Sunday afternoon.