time's a tickin'

We are leaving on Sunday, and I feel like I could use another week here. We're starting to think about what we need to do when we get back. Mostly move our furniture back into the living room, and Christopher wants to sand the living room baseboards before we do that.

Today is Friday, however, and I'm trying to finish up my natural dyeing before then. Everything seems to go in slow motion with this process. On Wednesday I scoured my wool, which meant soaking it in a soapy solution for several hours, and then soaking it in water to rinse it. (Don't want to agitate too much, since it may felt the fiber!)

Yesterday I pulled out my new dyepot, mixed up my mordant (cream of tartar and alum). I made the mistake of filling the dyepot from the hose, and the water was icy. It took several hours to get it to simmer, and then it's supposed to simmer for several hours before letting it cool overnight.Today, well, today I'm hoping to dye, though we have to leave in half an hour to have lunch with Christopher's grandparents. I've collected my goldenrod and it is simmering out there on the lawn. I'll probably turn it off and let it sit while we're gone, and when we get back I'll strain it and add my fiber. I seem to be stuck with just goldenrod for dyeing this summer, which is a little unfortunate. It apparently makes a beautiful yellow dye and it is growing everywhere, but I don't like wearing yellow. And I've got a bunch of different fibers to dye: merino, superwash merino, blue faced Leicester, and the silk/wool blend that I spun a month or two ago. I'll have yellow fiber and more yellow fiber. Maybe next year I can overdye my yellow fiber with something else, like black-eyed Susans. (I looked for them this morning, but only found a handful and half of them were covered with little black bugs.)