Today we’re preparing to natural dye our merino/alpaca yarn. We are mordanting the yarn, then weighing and preparing the dye to use tomorrow. We are soaking and simmering cochineal, madder roots and osage orange to make the dye liquid. Tomorrow is the fun part when we will use the dye liquid we made today to create rich, heathered colors from our gray yarn.
At the end of August look for our new fingertip towels for sale in the shop and in the gift barn. Woven in earth tones with a Cottlin warp and Cottlin boucle weft, with a touch of Dara’s hand-spun Pima cotton for the borders, these make very attractive and absorbent hand towels.
Dara and Nicole have started overdying our own grey alpaca/merino blend wool with natural dyes producing lovely heathered jewel-tone colors. Next week we will have photos of their work in progress. We are hoping to have our natural dye class ready for this fall. Keep watching our website for more details.
This month our intermediate weaving students of all ages are learning how to weave chenille scarves.
Get the most out of your Rigid Heddle loom (or purchase one from us at the time of the class and get a 10% discount)! Try our Rigid Heddle Mini series, weave a different scarf each class. Call Fiber Crafts @ (245)754-9680 or email sue@sustainlife.org for more information.