When our merry band of natural dyers decided (wholeheartedly) to gather one last time
before winter sets in and puts the big kabosch on outdoor *cooking,*
it seemed only fitting that this enthusiastic group of
dyehards
should celebrate their past ~ and future! ~ successes
with a brand new pair of tongs ...
I think they liked them.
The November day was kind to us. Plenty of sun, not a whisper of (normally biting) wind
and although we each worried a bit about the slimmer pickins of autumnal plant material,
we pulled it together with great exuberance
and generous sharing from each other's stash ...
including a bit of pilfering from S's hedgerow.
Somehow it ALWAYS works out.
We've been lucky that way.
Our brews:
1. Carrot tops, peach leaves & wild blackberry leaves, with copper pipes in a stainless pot.
2. Scraps of rusty metal in plain water (no vegetation) in a stainless pot.
3. Red cabbage with sea salt & alum in an aluminum pot.
Wrapped inside my bundles:
cedar bark, onion skins, rusty washers, frozen blackberries, "ice flower" red scabiosas,
purple elderberry leaves, madrone bark
and eucalyptus leaves ...
which flew in all the way from California.
(Mercy, THANK YOU!)
Just when I'd begun to think that I was finally achieving a small grasp on this whole dye thing
the eucalyptus has to come along and throw me a curve ball.
What? I thought eucalyptus was supposed to be fairly easy to "manage."
I was dead set certain these babies would leave gorgeous ORANGE-RED marks.
The onion skins did not fail me ... but pale spring green from these eucs???
*sigh*
Oh well. Maybe it's the water.
In any case, I am ever so grateful to my dye pals for their fortitude, unbounded enthusiasm,
rip roaring senses of humor and most importantly, their kindness & camaraderie. It truly has been,
"the more, the merrier,"
and I can't wait to see where we'll be heading next spring ...
