Up to our elbows in dye

I did a direct application dye session with the AH class yesterday. I hadn't done any painting for a while, for a whole raft of reasons but mostly because I never think I am very good at it. This is principally because of the dyes I use which are quick and easy, but not easy to mix and create more subtle colours. However, I had to demo as it was a while since the class had done it and their memories seem to be even worse than mine......



For whatever reason, they pretty soon got the bit between their respective teeth and were very enthusiastic about it all. For once I made them weigh and mix their own colours - I don't think anyone did much playing around with adding one colour to another although I did tell them how to go about it. It got a little messy anyway, but fun.



The steaming bundles always look very unprepossessing to me, and I had advised them to leave theirs until they got home to unwrap when completely cool. Ha! Fat chance.



Having said that, I do find it pretty irresistible myself. And the tops, skeins and warps all looked nice - by coincidence, most people had used fairly complementary (in the untechnical sense) colours, although one person did do a beautiful autumn shades range on some mohair top. Towards the end of the day, a couple decided that they couldn't bear to waste the dye residues in the cups and put whatever side by side. The results were actually rather nice.

I really enjoyed the day, and I think the class did, too. They are very kind to me about my technical deficiencies, and I do try my best to give them sound information, but I am not a mathematical or even very precise person, so it is always a tad flying by the seat of the pants style. Still we survived.

The weekend is all up in the air. We may not get to the seaside with the mater after all, She had a little fall (I have checked and it really was minor) and does not feel too confident about the enterprise. I suppose I am not surprised - I had kind of detected signs of talking herself out of it before this happened. It's sad, but there we are. We shall see how it goes, spend time with her anyway of course.

When I get back I need to get to grips with alpaca in a hurry, for the next class. I'm going to try some blends. I now have another six classes booked, so have to come up with six more topics for them - I just had an email from Amazon to say there is a copy of Handspun Revolution winging it's way to me, very timely as I was wondering about doing "funky yarns". I haven't seen this book and am prepared to be disappointed, but who knows? Otherwise, all suggestions gratefully received as after five years or so I am struggling to keep things fresh. I might try wire/bead knitting and crochet, at least as a subsidiary. And I shall need a nice gentle do-it-in-my-sleep one for the class five days after we get back from the States in November! Still, plenty of time to think that one out.