getting ready

for the last several years, our july guild meeting has been held on a members farm. the first two years we visited 'high-bid farm' and last year amy was coerced offered to have us at 'stone edge fibers'.  since it went so well, we are headed back again this year. in january (ish) when the guild board was thinking about programing, it was decided that we needed an outdoor venue to have another dyeing program. so naturally it followed, that if we were headed to a farm in july, and amy does such amazing dyeing, and her set up is really conducive to teaching..... why not? ( i'm sure she doesn't have the same recollection of the discussions..... but hey, it's my blog ;)
with the date fast approaching, she decided that we needed to have a practice run to make sure this would all work, and since it was probably my idea ( although i still am hazy on this fact ) i needed to lend a hand.
so monday, in this oppressive heat wave, i went over to be a student.

she has it! so here how it works...... folks have to bring two-ounces of fiber. amy will get it soaking and when she has enough folks ready, they will get set up at a table with pre-mixed dyes in bottles and the roving on plastic wrap. her biggest worry was that the bottles would leak, but they passed our test. the roving can be set-up in a variety of ways.... she laid hers in two straight  rows and i squiggled mine. dye is then applied, again there are lots of ways to do this.

she'll then sprinkle on the magic dust ( really it's just citric acid, but magic dust sounds way cooler )
we roll them up and pop them into the steamer.

at this point, she is planning to have them in bags with each person's name on them. after they steam, they get put in the sink to cool, then rinsed.

out they go to dry, and you've got some dyed roving. she is even letting me have our practice ones.
and because i was dopey over-prepared, i took along some roving. what was i thinking, of course she had stuff for us to practice on. since i had it along,  we she dyed it for the next knit-a-long.......