Happy Summer Solstice

Our guild dye day was somewhat disappointing.   We had two options and you could do both.   Nature dyes, with 4 different pots and weak acid dyes, because you could easily paint a warp or a skein while we waited for the nature dyes to take.

I pre-mordanted all the wool for the natural dyes with 10% alum.  We had easily 2-5 times the dye materials to WOF ratios so there should have been lots of dye pigment available.  The only issue we really had was that there wasn't enough power to keep all the pots simmering on the hot plates.   The walnut dye went outside in the sun.  The madder ended up in a crockpot and the dandelions on a hot plate, which never got past a very low simmer.   The stinging nettle went inside onto a stove, was forgotten about and ended up bubbling gently and happily away.   Until this combination, we kept blowing breakers.   Hindsight being what it is, we should have moved another pot or two to the inside stove and left one on the hot plate in the garage.   Live and learn.    The stinging nettle was an experiment and I'm pretty happy with that colour.  It was a lovely green.  I left this one 48 hours before rinsing and it's a little darker than another sample that I'd seen which was rinsed shortly after being removed from the dye pot.  

I'm not sure what's up with Kevin.  I've absolutely never, ever seen him being silly.  He is a very proper kitty, who never seems to do anything to make me laugh.  He was waiting for me to turn the tap on.   He usually comes up to me and stares until I notice him and guess at what he wants.   He usually leads me around to various places in the house before ending up at his desired goal.   I'm guessing that he didn't want to play that game that day and just waited patiently.  While he likes to drink fresh running water, his water bowl was also full of fresh water.  When he's at the sink, he sort of gently puts his front feet in as little as possible to reach the tap, like it's some sort of great irritant.  He does squint his eyes at me if I don't figure out what he wants quickly enough though.