This week, I’m taking you behind the scenes in my dye studio as I prep for my upcoming trunk show at Cream City Yarn. The trunk show is June 20-22, so I’m in the final stages of prep this week. Here’s a glimpse into what I’m doing today.
My dye studio is currently in my basement, so I head down after breakfast and a run and get to work. My first priority is usually to get something going on the burners, because I can pretty easily monitor a batch of yarn while I work on other tasks.
This morning, I’m dyeing some Lorien Lace in an exhaust bath to use up excess dye and then overdyeing with cutch a batch of Edoras Fingering that turned out a little more grey than I wanted.
I get started with the exhaust bath first. An exhaust bath is the term for when I dye a second or third batch of yarn in the same dye bath without adding any new dye. It’s a fun way to experiment while using up leftover dye and reducing waste. I get it going pretty quickly because all I have to do is add the yarn that I’ve been soaking overnight and then turn on the burner.
Here’s what came out of this pot after the first round of dyeing last night–a nice rich yellow with orange undertones. This was dyed with Himalayan Rhubarb. I’m hoping this exhaust bath will yield a lighter color that brings out more of the orange tones, but we’ll see.
I dyed these ten skeins yesterday, and they have dried overnight because we had warmer and drier weather yesterday and today. This feels fast, because it usually takes a couple of days for skeins to fully dry after rinsing.
This batch was a bit of an accident, because I measured out too much dye and didn’t realize it until I had already added it to the dye bath. I had intended to dye my “Apricot” colorway, but these turned out more yellow, and I’m guessing that’s because of the higher concentration of dye. I don’t mind. Part of the fun of natural dyeing for me is experimenting and seeing what happens. That’s also part of how I learn and develop new colorways.
Once I get the burners going, I turn to twisting skeins and labeling. Then, with these ten skeins twisted, I stir the pots once and then work on finishing some labeling I started last night.
Every skein gets a label on which I hand-write the name of the colorway. It’s time consuming to write the names on each label and then tape the label on each skein, but I like the process and the personal touch. I’ve labeled over 200 skeins for this trunk show, and I’m finally almost done.
By the time I’m finished twisting and labeling, I feel like the exhaust bath is done, so I turn off the burner and then set the pot under the table to cool. Now it’s time to mix up the next dye bath.
I just bought a frother to help me mix my dyes more quickly and easily, so I’m trying it out for the first time today. I wasn’t expecting all the foam (which is silly, because that’s what a frother does) but it does mix the dye more quickly than by hand, which is what I’ve been used to.
I add the dye to the fresh water, rinse the skeins that have been soaking in the mordant bath overnight, and then add the yarn to the bath. Since this is cutch, I’ll raise the temperature to just over 170 and then hold it there for an hour or so.
Once this batch is in, I work on finalizing inventory counts for the show. I’m taking around 500 skeins, which is my biggest trunk show ever, so I want to make sure everything is properly accounted for.
This is my first time doing a local show, and I’m excited to be working with a shop I know and have visited before. It’s also nice not to have to worry about shipping.
Before I know it, lunch time is here, and as soon as I pause, I realize just how hungry I am. The batch of cutch that was on the burners is finished, so I set it aside to cool and head upstairs for lunch.
After lunch, I have one more batch of yarn to dye. I’ll be dyeing my “Berry” colorway, which is a little more involved than most of my other colorways.
First, I mordant the yarn using copper sulfate. This turns the yarn a pale greenish-blue color, since the copper sulfate is blue. Second, unlike for any of my other dyes, I have to steep the dye for around 2 hours to extract the color. I use Sappanwood for this colorway, which can leave little woody bits in the yarn if you don’t steep it or strain the dyebath before adding the yarn. Finally, once the dyestuff has steeped, I add the yarn to the bath, and it turns a deep reddish-purple almost as soon as it’s submerged. There’s no trace of the blue color from mordanting.
This is one of the reasons I love natural dyes. These transformations feel like magic. Even though the dye has struck right away, I bring it up to temperature and hold it there for about an hour to help set the color. I’ll let it cool overnight and rinse it tomorrow.
During all of that, I’m rinsing the yarn I dyed in the morning as well as a batch of indigo-dyed yarn that needed another wash. Rinsing is probably the most time-consuming part of the dyeing process, because most colors need to be rinsed many times to get out all the excess dye. All of my yarns go through at least 7 rinses, but some more than 20.
After rinsing three different batches, my arms are pretty tired, and my “Berry” dyebath is done, so I turn off the burners, tidy up a little bit, and head upstairs for the night.
I’m nearly ready for the show, and I should be able to finish up prepping over the weekend. It’s hard work, but so rewarding.
Once upstairs, I swatch for a last-minute sample that I’m hoping to finish before the show. I’m going to make a Sophie Lowe Beanie with my Rivendell Fingering and Lorien Lace held double. We’ll see if I can finish in time.
So there you have it. A little behind the scenes look at a day in my dye studio. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to comment below. While I wouldn’t consider myself a natural dye expert, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned.
