This is our Host Kathy Hattori from Earthues. We all loved her, we could not get enough from her and she knew she had captivated our attention. Everyone was so excited. Myself I was going to overdyed some yarn I did not like much, but mainly because I wanted to see the effects of overdyeing it with indigo. I have wanted to take a class like this, but was not able to get the money together in time, or the times it was offered around my area was not very goo as I had to travel by public transportation.
This place was truly magical, Kathy is truly magical and her knowledge and expertise was out of this world. Specially after reading the article in Spin Off Magazine in which she is featured and Earthues as well. What amazes me is the color depth and vibrancy of natural color dyeing. Properly done you should not impact the environment in a negative way. One thing I kept hearing over and over is to balance your dye bath after you are done. Is a chemistry thing, but it is better if the water goes with a neutral PH into the ground or for the runoff.
Most of the pictures outside and with me in them were taken by my friendly assistant Kent. He was very instrumental in my having as many pictures as I do. Thank You Kent.
Here we have Kiwi James in the middle from fibre Alive blog and owner of JOY of Yarn . James has his own line of sock yarn kettle dyed by him, with different materials and sometimes commercial dyes, he came to learn and find out like we all did what was Indigo dyeing all about. Behind him we have Rusty the gentleman that won the scholarship from XRX The company that does Stitches Events around the country, Thanks to Benjamin Levisay and his generosity we got a scholarship. I forgot the name of the guy in front of them, but he is a very nice guy as well.
Here you see Joe Wilcox talking, he never stops, which is fantastic as he has so much to say. I am never tired of listening to Joe. You may notice all the stuff on the table, which is everything that is used to make color naturally. This was a very exciting class, so much to learn and not enough time, but Indigo is a class on itself.
Once you prepare your skein with the loose ties, so that the dye takes well, you kind of soak it in hot water, then after 20 minutes or so you do the first immersion.
I was not the first in line, we had to make a line and take turns.
When the yarn gets dipped for about 15 seconds you take it out and the yarn looks greenish, then it starts to get blue. You don't necessary get the color your yarn looks like, you will need to get it darker and longer, 1 to 2 minutes next time until your color is about two shades darker than desired. Only time and experience will teach that, Kathy was kind enough to let us know, lol!
So here we were opening up the fiber so that the dye gets oxidized and there are no undyed areas. You need to spread the yarn and open it up to the air. The gloves were completely necessary, no need to have the Andorian blues on your hands.
This place is fantastic and I believe everything in here is naturally dyed. I got myself an Indigo Kit and a Regular kit for my own Xmas Present shh! I will be very surprised.
SO here is the kit and the yarn after it was dipped three times, 15 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes (twice). The lighter areas were done on purpose, so that I can see what over dying did on longer exposure times. Thanks to Michael Wade for making this possible and for Kathy for the great Lecture. Thanks to all the guys with cars, Troy you are a gift, thanks for the lift. Hope you enjoy the small journey, and there is a bit more coming on, but that may be in a day or two, I have some spinning to do,but before I go. Later that day we got the best of SHow and Tell and Kevin was the winner you saw his picture in a previous post. The shawl he made won a fantastic price from A Verb for Keeping Warm which has a new store opening soon , on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. Then we had PJ Movie night where we witness Young Frankenstein and Hair Spray we also had a clip of an Urban Movie in which Michael Wade is participating. More information here.
First two minutes of "Tightly Knit" (featuring @knitmoregirls, @LuckyOx42, @Miss_kalendar & me) can be seen here: http://www.fil.es//xf . Thanks for stopping by!
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