This month's entries:

Monday, Aug 1	Tuesday, Aug 23

(I'm keeping this page in chronological order... because I like it that way.)

Pamela A. was there, she came down off the mountain to come to Dye Day. She's got lots of pics, and I'll post copies when I get them.

THis is the cotton I dyed with fiber reactives. It's a bad picture, because by the end of the day it was in dappled sunlight. I'll post better pictures after the skeins are completely rinsed; that's what I'm doing right now but the water isn't rinsing clear yet.

This is what the other Ruth (Ruth Northrop, who runs the Dizzy Ewe; we finally decided she's the Dizzy Ruth and I'm the Twisted Ruth) and Nancy did with a dyepot of cocobolo and bleeding heart shavings. No, I'm not sure I got that second name right, ok? Nancy's husband does some killer woodworking, and I really like the niddy noddy I've got.

Here's Dizzy Ruth and her indigo skein; it's wool with a nylon binder, boucle. She was wanting to get a gradation in the dye; the top part was after an hour's soak, and the bottom was after about 3 hours. I'm thinking that the instant indigo doesn't build up like multiple dips in a fermentation vat; that's what I've read on the Natural Dyes list, and it seems to be what's happening here.

OK - here's today's experiment: solar dyeing. I'm making jars of dyer's marguerite, mountain mahogany, and bracken fern.
Here's pictures of my new favorite dye toy- ooops, I mean tool.

It's a laser-beam infrared thermometer!! How fun is that. You just point and shoot, and the digital readout gives you the temp. At bottom left, you can barely make out the red dot from the laser; bottom right gives a better reading of the temp.

The Roketman gave me this for Christmas. He found it at Costco, in the tool section (go figure), and it runs about $80. Pricey, but wayyyy fun. I could see a very cool science project, where there's a poster picture of rooms in a house, with little popup signs for how hot places were. You know, measuring energy efficiency. (I'm trying to keep a straight face here, this is so much fun to do!) RM took measurements of the ceiling in the hall- it was 100F outside, and the ceiling read 78. Except that one panel where we were missing the insulation- it read 98F.

This is the setup - as of about eleven. The thermometer in the window says it's about 76F, the cement in the shade is 86F, in the sun it's 113F. The temp inside the black cement-mixing bin is 116F, and inside the jars is an average of about 112F. I don't see much color coming out yet.
At 1:30 - the window thermometer says 87F, the cement in the shade is 91F, in the sun it's 130F. (no wonder it burns my bare feet!) I've put water in the bin, and it reads 115-130 (depending on where I shine the laser). My reasoning is that the water will hold heat better and longer than just air. Interestingly, the jar with the black lid reads 122F, while the others are 110-115. I'm beginning to see color come out of the marguerite.

At 4, the outside temp is 95F, and the bin is in dappled shade. It makes a big difference - the cement that stayed shaded is at 88F, the cement next to the bin is at 108F, and the water temperature inside the bin, and the jars is about the same. It's too heavy to drag around, but I might move it to a place that gets sun longer tomorrow.

- R, 10:30 PM.

I promised some people on Sheep Thrills a copy of Sarah Swett's loom plans (I already have her permission to share...). Here's the Loom Assembly, a bit better picture, and how to install heddles.