First Saturday Dye Days

The sun wasn't up yet, but I was. I was sooo excited, because I was going to go to First Saturday Dye Days at Fancy Fibers Farm. This was a real treat for me. On Friday night, I had put some water and vinegar in a bucket and soaked my yarns. Then this morning I squeezed out the extra water and put my yarns in a plastic bag. I drove to The Colony, where I met up with my friend Liz, and rode with her over to the farm.

We had quite a drive ahead of us. But you know how it is, when two women are in the car chatting, time flies by. One hour later, we were there.

I brought two sock blanks to dye and one skein of very bulky and slubby yarn to dye. Others brought yarn and spinning roving, while others purchased roving and yarns, from Mary, to dye.

I took one of the sock blanks that I had dyed during this past winter. I had actually done two sock blanks the exact same colors. Don't know why, guess it was just "brain fade." When you think about it, who wants 2 pairs of socks the same color???? Not me. AND my kids are past the "Let's match Mom faze of life." So, I decide to over dye one of the blanks.

To over dye, you just put new colors over the old. You do need to think about what your new color will be, when you do this. You don't want to end up with mud and you want to end up with a color you like. So, if you have yellow and over dye it with blue, you will have some shade of green.

I love jewel tones and look best in jewel tones. I know, this will be on my feet, but they will go with my clothes.

Here is the pretty pastel, dyed with Easter egg dyes, sock blank. The BEFORE.


After much discussion and thinking and help from my friends, I used black on one half and then used Teal, Purple and Aztec Gold on the other half.

Ta Da!!!! How about that? The wind was blowing, sorry it is blurry. THE AFTER.



The teal/blue color on the end is what is called waste yarn, it will be unravelled and not used.

Here is the second sock blank. I used Crimson, Black and Aztec Gold. (I like the gold color!)




Below you will see, my skein of very bulky yarn all the way to the left. I used Chestnut Brown, Golden Ochre and (you guessed it) Aztec Gold. :) Then you see my two sock blanks and some rovings from the others there. Oh, notice the farm in the background. What you cannot see are the beautiful chickens roaming around behind the fence, because the yarn is blocking the view.

Last, but not least, there is clean up. Many hands make light work. Here is Kay busy at work cleaning and rinsing out all of our dye cups, brushes and applicators. Thanks Kay!