Dyeing is Addictive

Another beautiful Saturday, not too hot, amazing for Texas in August. And I was tempted back to Heritage Arts at the Beaumont Ranch to test dye some Kraemer Sterling before proposing it to the group for our dyeing week-end next month. OK, any excuse will do. Micki and Susan decided to come along, and off we went to the ranch.

Where Lorelei and Sue had already set out the dyes and our worktables on the wooden porches of our little western town.
The process involves a bit of mental planning, then some measuring and stirring.
Then it's off to apply the results of our concoctions. Note Lorelei's blue/green hands here. She hates gloves almost as much as she hates shoes! Susan is hard at work creating "Noriko", a colorway to honor her beloved kitty of the same name. Thanks to Susan for all but two of the photos today. Ms. Angeluna forgot her camera!
Notice how "chic" we all are in our aprons provided thoughtfully by Micki. One of the neighboring shop owners wanted to buy them off our backs if we would stain them with "blood" so they could use them in the upcoming Civil War Reenactment. Impossible. Hard as we tried, our dyes wouldn't work on the non-protein fibers of the aprons. And here is Ms. Angeluna working hard to get the colorway she has so clearly in her mind.
Dyeing done and ready to cook heat set.

Straight out of the oven and too hot to handle. The Kraemer Sterling needed to be rinsed ASAP before the vinegar tarnished the silver.

Voilà, the products of our labors...the two ends are both skeins of Sterling.

And here we have the Sterling samples, which dyed up beautifully. Think these two skeins of Gitane may want to be a shawl.

Just nearby, these beautiful water lilies were languishing in the lake. Eye candy for the overheated dyers.

Can't wait to return. Have lots of new colorways floating in my head like sugarplums. We missed you Celtic Memory.