Dye Day

Friday was dye day!! I always look forward to those days at the center because we have so much fun, especially when there are new people joining us!! There were only 7 of us this time. Ila, Marie and I had done this before. Karin, Bonnie, Sharon and Julia hadn't! So Ila gave them a crash course on what to do and we all chipped in to help each other make it work.

I always have images of myself stopping frequently, taking off my gloves and snapping pictures of what people are doing with their warps.

Truthfully, I took that first picture before we started. Then a good hour or so later, Tina dropped by for a moment and I had to take off my gloves then to get what she needed. So, right there was my camera and I went around the room snapping pictures. That was that!!
I'm not sure whose warp this is, but it will be nice. Don't you love the sopping up rag? If you soak cotton fabric in soda ash like you do the warps, then dry them, you can use them to absorb the excess dye and later these will be cut up and used in placemats or rugs!

 I know this is Sharon wrapping the skein she'd dyed in the plastic where it sat for a day or so before she rinsed it out.

 Ila had a long shawl warp she spent a long time working on, using grays, oranges and brown to make a fascinating warp. I know that LouAnn will take pictures of it later when it's on the loom and she's weaving the different shawls! It was a long warp too, kind of cumbersome to rinse out!

 I was in the middle of a blues warp. All shades of blue.

We were there til 4pm and everyone chipped in to clean up. Bonnie even vacumned! We all took warps and skeins home to rinse as well. I'm sure everyone had a fun time getting them done.
Tomorrow some of them will come back to the center with the dry skeins and warps! Then we'll all get to see what was done.
Me, I'm about to head back to the studio to weave my navy warp. I will have pictures of my drying skeins next week. I'm thinking I'll wind a few more warps now so I'm ready for the next dye day. Guess we'll have to schedule one again soon. It's fun to mess with colors, see what we can put together and how it all works out in the end!! And what doesn't work as well. I had inherited a fair amount of white fabric, quite wide too. I suspected it wasn't all cotton so had ripped off a section of it, soaked it in soda ash and brought it to use to absorb excess dye. Well, in rinsing it out, it took some of the dye but just barely. Yup, some synthetic in that fabric. So, either use it as it or dye it with something else. We'll see what ends up happening to it!
Until next week, keep weaving!!
Carol