Dyeing Results

As you may remember, I organized a workshop, "Color Mixing for Dyers I", taught by Carol Soderlund in September. It was held at a fabulous location, Glacier Camp on the shore of Flathead Lake.

First, I must say, if you have the opportunity to take a class with Carol, jump at the chance. I have taken a lot of workshops in my time, and Carol was the most organized and most generous teacher I have ever had. There was so much information given to us, the workshop was really a master's level class. I have never really understood the "color wheel" and how analogous colors and complements and split complements worked. Carol's method of teaching the "Cubic Color Theory" made it all fall in to place for me. And the hands-on dyeing experiments were wonderful.

Secondly, if you have a class, or family reunion, or wedding to organize and you are looking for an amazing location, I can highly recommend Glacier Camp . The location is wonderful, the lodge building is new and immaculately clean, but most of all the staff is helpful, and as accomodating as can be.

I have just finished my sample book with over a 1,000 one-inch sample squares. Before the class, I really doubted I would have the patience to stick down that many little squares of fabric. Instead, I found myself contemplating each color individually and really enjoying how they all worked together. (photo courtesy of Carol Soderlund)



Here is a skein of rayon boucle' I dyed while at the workshop. (sorry about the poorly cropped picture, it shows up full size in my blog editor, but cut off when its published) This was dyed with a low water immersion technique using three dye solutions- a pure dye(in this case,yellow), and two complementary colors. I can't find my notes on what I did with this skein, so I can't tell you how I mixed the dyes. Basically, I mixed up a green and a russet color using the yellow dye and either blue or red dye. In addition to Carol's goal for us to work with low water immersion, and to use her formulas for mixing color, I also wanted to push myself to use earth tones. You know, those colors I am so traumatized by....
I crammed the yarn skein in a 16 oz. cottage cheese container, poured the russet and green dyes down opposite sides of the container, and then poured the pure yellow on top of the skein.

I am really pleased with the results! I was surprised by the black- I thought I would have a dark brown where the green and russet mixed. I love the surprises you get where the dyes interact together. Carol described this as "and then magic happens". And this was the perfect black for the other colors. I always fuss over the black MX dye mixes. You have to consider whether they have a blue or green or rust cast and how that will go with the colors you are dyeing. By mixing your own, it is always correct.