Dye Day

Sara, Sue, Eileen and Lindsey - looks like a visit, maybe a spin-in? Other than the steamer to Sara's left, there's not much to say "dye day" is there. We're at Sue's, overwhelming her life and house - and yes it is a dye day.
I wandered onto a conversa-
tion and learned about pickling, That's what I'm doing here. I'm pickling a pound of Blue-faced Leicester in a bath of Dawn, vinegar and gold dye for an hour. All the colors I paint onto my wool will be on this base, with no white blank spaces.
These are the dyes that we're using. Sara instituted the dye days about five years ago as a fund raiser for the guild, and in spite of her heavy teaching schedule, she has continued these sessions. Allison and I drove over from Reno for the second one and Sue's garage was packed to the gills - we kept tripping the fuses and tripping over each other. It was March so we were freezing and the garage door had to be closed. April is much better.

Sara brought all her sample books with the ratios and the informa-
tion we needed to replicate each color. I started with the books, then lost discipline and started mixing. Let me say - if you ever get a chance to take a class from Sara Lamb, you really need to sign up. You snooze, you lose.
And while everything was going on, Sue's handyman Seth was painting house trim, and found this nest made from hay twine. I wanted a picture of the nest high up in Sue's entry, but we were a bit much for mom, who was nervous and skittish. It was endearing though to see Seth with his bird book, checking her out.
This is Lindsay's car, with the first of her dye baths drying. I fell in love the colors of the roving on her windshield and spent my time trying to replicate her results, but fell wildly short. This is my second dye day with Lindsay. I wish I could communicate how much fiber she ends up dying in the course of a day. This was just the first round. She is a legend.
It was a Lendrum-
heavy crowd. The empty wheel is Sara's - her husband picked her up to shop for a new heater - but mine, had I thought to bring it, would have upped the percentage. We're chatting and waiting for packets to steam. I simply cannot think of a richer experience. Really.
I was done, cleaning up, feeling sad that the day was drawing to close, when Lindsay put these Nancy Roberts knitting machine blanks in my hands. Here, she says, pulling them out of her soak water. My results I think are genuine dope-smoking, hippy Nevada County tie-dye. Socks to follow. Some pix from Sue's place~



Sorry. I get lost here because this where I thought I would live the rest of my life and when I'm here, I feel like my mom is having a romp too. I sometimes get carried away. She would have totally loved this day.