Dye Day will be held on Monday, October 14, 2013, in Pendleton, Indiana.  If you are interested in learning more about natural dyes in a natural setting over open fires, this is the event for you!  Please mark you calendars and check back here late summer next year for details.

Basically, it will be from 10 AM until about 3 PM at The Trading Post for Fiber Arts (8833 S 50 W, Pendleton, IN).  Bring fleeces you want to sell, fiber or yarn you want to dye (if you bring fiber, it needs to be washed and contained in a mesh bag of some sort (think bags that onion come on, old panty hose, tuell sewed shut, etc.) – don’t pack the bag, keep it loose or the center will not dye), and something to share for lunch.  We will provide paper plates, plasticware, bottled water and coffee.  There would be 12-15 dyepots, all colors with the mordants included.  Children are welcome, as long as they are supervised by the parent or guardian and as long as it is understood that this will be done over open fires with pots of boiling water.  Wear old clothes (not hard for a farmer, right?) because you will go home dirty, splashed with dyes and reeking of wood smoke.  If you want to bring thick rubber gloves, that would help you get your fiber out of the pots.

Also, mark your skeins or fiber as yours.  You can use a brightly colored glass beads (recommended), or tyvek tags with sharpie initials written on it, or masking tape (not painters tape) folded over a string attached to the yarn and with a sharpie written initials on it.  You will want to be able to find your own yarn or fiber out of a pot with 20-30 other samples in it.

Start with smaller samples (.5 ounce or 20 yards), but bring more or larger ones for later.  Once everyone has had the chance to get their samples, then it is a free for all.

If you want to use this as a learning session for the kids, then bring a notebook and pens.  Put a number on your tags and have the notebook numbers so you can write down the dyepot that a sample goes into.  I will be available all day for questions help.  It’s a great learning experience.