Back in the Dyeing Saddle

Can you guess what this color comes from?




Do you know what these are?



Do you know how good it felt to stir the kettle again?




To smell the stinky vomitous dye bath?




And infuse my hair with the scent of smoky ash?

Life is good.
I'm back in the dyeing saddle.

Ode To My Dear Cochineal Bug

How is that when I grind your dried bodies up and steep them in my distilled water, three times over, you can make my heart sing as you do?



How is that when you're added to a pot of hot simmering water, you can make my legs go weak?


I could bleed your love and die a hundred deaths just to have you near me.



Oh fuchsia, dance with me. Let's tango together.



And then rest with me in the sun. And we'll let our dreadlocks intertwine.


Just come with me, my spinning wheel is right in here.



How do I love thee?



I cannot count the ways.



Dear Cochineal Bug, will you be mine?

Glorious Rust Bucket of a Tub

I've spent a few years now struggling with the idea of 'what's next' for me. I'm like a roulette wheel and it just depends on where the arrow falls...that's what I'm gonna be. Baker, teacher, doula, writer, hockey player, professional slacker, Volunteer Mother of the Year. Can you hear the click click click of the wheel, as it slows...it's getting slower and slower and slower and it finally comes to a stop?


Holy Moly Guacamole! Fiber Artist. Can you believe it? I'm a fiber artist. And I've burnt the shit out of my hydrangea bushes. But that's okay, because I'm a fiber artist! And my kettle is black! And I have smoke in my hair and dye under my finger nails. And has anyone ever smelled how disgusting a vat of roasted goldenrod smells like? It stings your nostrils. I've been smelling it in my sleep...along with wet hot wool. It's incredible!



And this glorious rust bucket of a tub. It was FREE! From one of Paul Bunyan's co-workers. We just had to go and pick it up and clean out the small trees growing in it and wash the green scum off of it...but isn't it wonderful? I mean, isn't it beautiful? I've never known such a happiness as I do now. Really.



Because now, now, I can wash half a blanket of fiber (that's like half of an alpaca) at one time! I know this looks worse than it is, and many of you might think that it really is as worse as it seems, but I, if only I could have, would have jumped into the tub too. It was delightful! To see all that dirty water, and to play in it, and pull pieces of hay, and alpaca poop, out with my fingers.



And then this...in the end. To see that I might actually be good at it. I mean, I know I have a lot to learn. BUT I got yellow. See? I got yellow from a weed. And you know what I'm going to do with some of this yellow? I'm going to add it to Indigo, which yes, I'm going to mix in my big black bucket and I'm going to have GREEN. Right? Blue and yellow make green? Right? This is elementary, my friends. Which is why I might be good at it! Life is grand. And you'll never guess what I have steeping on my stove right now? Any guesses? Okay, I'll tell you. I have PURPLE from red cabbages (local), which I simmered for an hour and a half. The house smelled delightful. Well, at least I thought so. The spawn wanted to sleep out on the lawn again, but I told them it was supposed to rain. And then I said, "you guys better get used to all these stinky potions...your momma's a fiber artist!" And they said, "what?" Yea, that's right...your momma's a fiber artist!

Sweet Dahlia Tea

Oh, does someone need more water? Oh, and yes, I'm sure you're hungry again, even though we just ate an hour ago. Would you like a snack? Oh, and you're most definitely bored, I can see that. Should we set up the paints or the play-doe? And you can leave it all there for me to pick up. Would everyone please leave their wet bathing suits on the floor a few more times?

I'm not bitter. I'm not bitter about being a slave to my children all summer. I'm not bitter at all. Does it sound that way? Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to come across that way. My bad, but I'm really not bitter.

Well, there is one week left of my servitude, but I used yesterday as a me day and I brewed up some sweet dahlia tea for our fiber. I'm going on a rampage this fall and I'll be bathing in aluminum sulfate and some blue and red and pink and yellow and green; and so if anyone wants to wreck their lungs and color their finger nails...join me. The pot will be boiling and I'll be the crazy witchy woman chanting: "Double, double toil and trouble / Fire burn and cauldron bubble".



I had to work inside yesterday because my firepit maker hasn't made my fire pit yet! I'm mordanting the fiber with aluminum sulfate here...boiling at 200 degrees for an hour.




But look at these beautiful blooms. I'm lucky enough to know people in high places. I got these dahlia bulbs from my friend Mike at American Meadows. He and his bulbs have never failed me.



I had to pick 20 blooms for dyeing...and there are new ones just about to burst. I won't have to miss their colors!



Shove the dahlias in glass jars with mordanted fiber and cold water.



And let them soak for several days...in the sun!


And despite disrupting the tiny earwig birthday parties that were going on in each of the blooms, it was a fairly easy process. I'm moving on to the goldenrod fields, that is, if the little princess and princes will give me a few hours. And if not, I'm scared I might have to drink some of that sweet tea. Especially if it's turning into a nice purple vodka!