Dyeing Wool with Anita

Hey Fellow Wool Lovers, this edition of Noodlings is about my friend and mentor, Anita White, and how fun it is to be with her on those days when she's "in the dye pots!"

I needed wool. And I needed it dyed a particular way, with several values of a color, and I needed quite a few colors. I was planning to teach a new group of portrait hookers in May, and so Anita--despite having just had surgery on her neck--agreed to dye it for me. But this time, she said, I would have to do more of the heavy lifting. ("We're in trouble," I thought.)

We spent three days working together in the unfinished part of Anita's basement, where she stores and dyes wool. She gets up at oh-dark-thirty, and by the time I rolled out of bed, she had all the pots filled and bubbling! Well, I may have filled some of them. 🙄

This time, we achieved a soft flesh that I just love. We tried three Cushing dye colors together to land on the border of pink and orange.

Usually, I stand by until Anita needs help with something, but this time, she handed me a fork and got me stirring.

Late in the day, Anita started to feel more tired than usual. Her neck was needing a rest. "You take over," she said. She charged me with dyeing all the values of teal, and later, all the values of a wonderful greeny bronze color. And I did it! I think my values ran a little darker, but there was clear separation between the values, and we clearly had six values of every color. What a sense of accomplishment--and better, I started to feel like I COULD DO THIS. Maybe after 18, 19 years of hooking, I might actually be able to learn how to DYE.

We have a tradition, Anita and I. When we finish our dyeing, we enjoy a cocktail or a glass of wine, usually with Doug, Anita's sweet husband, who does most of the cooking for us.

When everything was out of the dryer and folded, we had such a lovely array of colors! We laid it all out on the coffee table. Notice that we dyed quite a bit of Dorr Glen Plaid. I love to have this wool on hand for those instances when you need the black patterning. (I'll do a future post about this.)

You can see how the colors we dyed together show a tighter range of value, while my teal set went further to the dark end of the spectrum--which took some time.

When I have brought all this wool home from Anita's, I tear the larger pieces into narrower strips to make an affordable set of (usually) six values for portrait students.

No trip to Anita's would be complete without shopping, and this time we made it to First Friday at an incredible vintage market in the old part of KC. We always look at antiques in her favorite stores, and we often run short on car space as a result! Anita finds the very best bargains! This time, she bought a cobbler's rack--something I'd never seen. She uses it now to hold quilts and rugs.

Doug made a gorgeous omelette for us on our last morning. To be a guest in their home is pure heaven.

This dyeing trip inspired me to go home and talk to my handiman, Greg, who is also a contractor. We went into my mess of a basement and started planning.

Fast forward to July--this long, narrow space is being transformed into a small and very un-fancy dye area, with a stacking washer/dryer, a couple utility sinks, and a long stainless steel table. Greg put in dazzling light fixutures--you could do surgery in there. The walls and ceiling will all be white. He's increased the electrical capacity, so I can have several heating elements (burners, roasters, whatever) going at once. I'll have shelving at both ends--which is badly needed. And soon, he will cut the doorway into my studio, so I have easy access.

All because of my friend, Anita, who will be coming to give me my first at-home dye lesson in November. Thank you, Anita, and thanks to all for reading my Noodlings! Until next time, happy hooking!