Dye Day!!!

This past weekend I went down to Hollywood for a dye day put on by the L.A. F.A.G. (stop giggling, it stands for Fiber Arts Guild -do you really think LA has only one gay man?). The location was a beautiful arts and crafts "cottage" (if a REALLY big house can be called a cottage) with a wonderful back yard and patio area (see the photo above of everyone in action). There were probably over 50 people there over the course of the day with great food and several shops taking over various rooms of the house to do a little business (in case you ran out of your own fiber to dye).

It was so much fun! The members of the guild are great (a couple of us even converted a very creative guy to starting his own instructional blog, I can't wait to see it!) and were very welcoming. We spent the entire day talking, trying out different dyes including everything from Cushing's Acid Dyes to natural dyes to my new favorite way, earth hues natural dye extracts (they're as easy, if not easier, than chemical dyes with the results of natural dyes). Below is a hot pour dye (clown pot) that my dye buddy (twisted) Ruth set up. I threw quite a bit of gray wool into this pot and it came out wonderfully. You fill the pot with water and vinegar, slowly pour the dye on top and then very slowly bring the pot up to the temperature needed for the dye to strike (without poking it Ruth! :) ). That allows the dye to move down through all of the fiber in the pot before it strikes.















Here are some samples drying on the fence of what everyone did and some of the dye pots we had going. You'll notice there was a lot of blue. We had an instant indigo pot going all day and several acid dyes in various blues going but the colors were more diverse than what's drying here.















Speaking of which, below is more gray wool I dust dyed. This is where you mix acid dyes with corn starch and sprinkle it on fiber that is packed in a tray filled with water and acid. You then heat it until the dye exhausts. I'm not a huge fan of pink but we were worried that the gray would hide more subtle colors. Apparently it wasn't an issue!