WE HAD SOOO MUCH FUN TODAY!!!

Okay, I’ve gotten that out of my system.  We were blessed with wonderful weather, rather cool in the morning, but great for starting fires…

…and getting the pots filled and onto the fires…

…and getting the whole line of fires and pots going for the day.

We ended up with 15 pots going (combined the indigo into the indigo overdyes later in the day and forgot to bring a pot for the copper).

And I have to give a special thanks to two of our helpers this morning, Ryan, who helped with the fires and kept them going nicely all day…

…and his sister, Sarah, who helped me with the indigo pots, filling pots with water and helping to explain things to people who were there for the first time.

I have asked Sarah if she is interested in being my apprentice with the natural dyeing, and she has gladly agreed.  Susan and I have begun to discuss the idea of hosting a two-day natural dyeing workshop next spring geared mostly toward the home-schooled kids in the area, and I’ll have Sarah help set it up and work with me during it.

Both of these kids are impressive.  I had the chance to work with them some at the Huddleston House this past July, and I would be willing to work with them at any time.  Thank you Sherri for bringing them, and for all your help getting all the dyestuffs ready for the pots and for making the coffee.  You guys made today run so much smoother than if Scott and I had had to do it all alone and we are extremely grateful for all your help.

And it went better than any year since I have taken over the annual dye days.  This is my fourth year doing this since inheriting it from Marsha, and each year I learn how to do it better.  Of course, the best thing this year was the weather.  My first year it was in the 70’s; the second, it hit 91 degrees and we all about melted away working over the open fires; last year was in the low 80’s, and while an improvement over the year before, it was still too hot to be dealing with open fires and pots of boiling liquid.

Today, it started out cloudy and very cool, it sprinkled a couple of times (just enough for people to look up and say, “It’s sprinkling,” then go back to what they were doing), then the sun came out and I think it had to reach near 60 degrees.  Lovely!

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, happily playing in the pots,…

…we had a bit of half-time entertainment courtesy of Sarah and Carley, the two Great Pyranees,…

…and then this talented group of people pulled out various projects and relaxed, talked, and created!

And one talented person in a different way, but still with colors.

And then, what we were all there for…

The colors!!!

We had four incredible indigo pots (a light one, a dark one, and two overdye ones) that started early and didn’t give out until the end of the day.  The blues were better than I could have wished for for everyone, and the overdyed colors interesting, varied and intense.

Two young ladies, for example, brought several pieces of cotton cloth, some plain, but some with a white on white print.  The printed part stayed white and the background dyed and the effects they got were truly beautiful!

Another lady brought a linen cloth that had a metallic thread woven into it, and we had lots of fun dyeing and overdyeing it, and that metallic thread just sparkled!

We had pieces of silk that nearly glowed with the intensity of the colors, and there was handspun llama knitted up into a baby hat and booties that were dyed pink and purple, wool yarn and roving in every shade dyed the most wonderful colors.

Sarah is taking my weaving workshop in November, and I believe some of the wool yarn she dyed is destined to become her scarf in that class.  Now, how cool is that?!

I have to repeat it.  We had FUN today, and I can’t wait until next year to do it all again.  Our turnout this year broke records for us and we could not be more pleased with how it went.

Thank you, everyone, for coming!  And thank you Usha, for the hat.  As soon as I get the information on it from you, I want to show it to everyone, but I will give them this hint.  All the stitching on it was done by hand by some very talented ladies from Usha’s native India.  I’m sad that you are going back to India next month, and I hope that one day we can meet again!

And thank you, Indianapolis Chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America for coming today.  What lovely ladies you all are and what fun we had!

Yes, I have much to be thankful and grateful for today!  And I had FUN!!!