I’m definitely not moving at top speed this morning, but I am surprised at how not sore I am. Last night I was walking like a little old lady, my feet hurt, my back hurt and I was very stiff. This morning, I am practically ache-free – and surprised at this as I am not the steadiest of exercisers and thought I’d be very stiff and sore this morning. How cool is that?

Remember me telling you about using the men’s white cotton hankies to contain some of the dye material while dyeing? Well, I emptied them and washed them this morning and they are hanging to dry.

From left to right they are: the failed alkanet root hankie (see the only color is where the dye material touched the cloth – this one still puzzles me), alkanet root with copper, Osage Orange with alum, Osage Orange with copper, Brazilwood with tin, Brazilwood with alum, cochineal with copper, Brazilwood with copper, cochineal with tin and annato seeds with tin. It’s too bad the annetto seeds one won’t stay that brilliant of an orange, but it will fade. Later, when I get the chance, I’ll show you this year’s annatto seeds hankie next to last year’s to show you the difference a year has made in the intensity of the color.

Karen Harras, my very much appreciated assistant yesterday with setting up the event, loaned me two pair of socks she knitted from the yarns she dyed last year. The first one was a ball of sock yarn, just tossed into a pot of cochineal toward the end of the day. She was tired, more than a little overwhelmed (it was her first Dye Day), and had one ball of yarn left to dye. She really didn’t care what she got, which is why she left the yarn in a ball. What she got was her favorite yarn of the day and a lovely pair of socks.

I think the varigation of this yarn is beautiful and I am so proud of them for her.

A second pair of socks she knitted was from yarn divided and put into several dyepots. She then divided up each sample, added some white for the additional yarn needed to complete a pair of socks and came up with this pair.

And speaking of sock yarn, here is the skein of sock yarn I dyed with cochineal and indigo for my friend, Sandy. I’ll be giving these to her tomorrow, but I wanted to show them to you. I am really proud of how these turned out. I can’t wait to see what the footie socks looks like when they are knitted up.

This sock yarn has given me the confidence I needed to dye more sock yarn for mine and my friends’ uses. I want to see what color combinations I can come up with as I do them. I’ll keep you posted.