Mostly Dye Day

Last Wednesday was a real treat!! DH closed the office in the afternoon and they had a reception for one of their nurses. Emilie has worked at the clinic for 50 years!! Can you imagine? And, she has no intention of quitting. DH asked her if she'd be there in the morning to work. The look of panic on her face as if, now she was too old to work was priceless. She will continue to work as long as she is able. She's the one that gave a couple of generations all their shots, was the only one allowed to draw blood on most of us and just a gentle, compassionate person. They're lucky to have her. I took a picture of her surrounded by some of the current docs and one that's retired.

 So, last Thursday was Dye Day at the center. We'd decided to dye some of the bamboo that we have for scarves and shawls. They'll be woven in time for the show in November that we do. There were 6 of us that came. I tried to keep up with taking pictures but as you'll see, I kind of forgot after a point....  Instead of arriving at 10 we got there at 9 already to get a jump on all that needed doing.
LaDonna is a real pro on all the fine points of chemicals, etc. Cindy and Shirley were just thrilled to get all the information that LaDonna was giving them. We are fortunate to have someone who has a huge knowledge of color as part of our group!!

 LaDonna and Ila had brought a couple of identical skeins of yarn. The one on the left is as it was dyed. Then they reskeined the one on the right. Totally different looks but the same color gradations. The one on the right looks more like what it would look like once knit or woven.

 Then we got to work.....

 This was the first bamboo warp that got painted, a section at a time.  I think that Cindy did this one.

 Christy had a scarf warp she was painting. Instead of bunching it up as most of us were doing, she spread her warp apart to paint it in total sections. I can't wait to see how it looks once she weaves it!!

 Bonnie got to paint this really long warp. It's for 3 shawls.....took forever!!

 So, that's when I forgot all about the camera because I was painting my own warps and skeins. We worked til 4pm getting everything done and then cleaned up down there!! In all we painted 7 warps and about 20 skeins of yarn. Some skeins were 1000 yards, some longer and thicker. I think that everyone learnt something about how to mix colors to get what you want and found that if something you mixed up turned out to be wrong for your warp, there was a good chance that it would be perfect for someone else's project.

I came home then to a box from UPS!! My yarn order from Yarn Barn came. I ordered mostly from their mill ends flyer, 8/2 cotton. I can see handtowels in those colors!!

We had wrapped all our painted skeins and warps in saran wrap and let them sit for awhile. I began to rinse out my projects Saturday afternoon and finished yesterday. It takes awhile to get the excess color out but boy, the fun of seeing what you painted is just exciting.
I got a tip from Catherine Ellis at the last South Eastern Fiber Forum Association workshop. She suggested contacting Laundry Alternatives and buy a centrifuge to spin out the skeins of yarn while you're rinsing them. So I did. What a lifesaver!! After you soak the skeins awhile, instead of killing your hands by wringing them out, stick them into this centrifuge to spin all that water out. Then, when you put it back into the water you get color from what's still in the yarns. The water got clearer so much faster!! Also, once completely done, I spun them again before hanging them to dry. They're almost dry now!!

 I've got a couple of warps to go on the loom but then I'm going to weave the 2 projects I dyed yarn for....can't wait!!

What's on the loom today? Black. Yeah, more of that but they'll be a bunch of vests that I'll decorate with woven triangles in different colors. I've done this for awhile and they are pretty cute.  I'd like to get the warp done by Wednesday and get the next one on...
It's another rainy dreary day here in Knoxville, perfect for getting down to the studio and working!!
Until next week..
Carol