It was a great day. First and foremost, the sun was shining and it felt good on our bodies as we walked Scooter around the neighborhood. And then, Steph came over for some dyeing fun. And to top it all off, the whole family went out for dinner to celebrate Mr C’s birthday. We ate like Tuscans at his favorite restaurant, Nostrana.

Steph and her 3191 partner, Maria, put out a Quarterly magazine of recipes and how tos. Steph wanted to do scarf dyeing that would be approachable for the average person. I suggested using the instant setting Colorhue dyes that I use in my workshops. They are now available at Dharma Trading. She ordered gorgeous large square blanks that are a silk/wool blend from Dharma.

We played around with mixing the colors to get some neutral shades for the overall dyeing. We did a pale blue, a pale mauve and sort of “griege”. I decided that a fold and dip shibori would be easier for beginners to do than pole wrapped shibori.

This is the blueish scarf. this was accordion folded and dipped in true blue. You can see it in the top photo.

This is the purple scarf. This was folded in triangles and dipped in purple. I didn’t get a photo of it.

This was the grayish scarf which was for me. I started folding it and was having trouble so instead I squished it into a bundle and just squirted it with red, yellow and orange dyes. We loved the water color effect of it. It is in the top photo. Mr C said it looked like camouflage!

To warm up, I did this chiffon scarf with citron and turquoise. It looked much better before it dried. As I told Steph, this can be very serendipitous.

Here is a photo of one of my experiments from earlier in the week, after the paint dried. It is looking much more interesting.

I just discovered that one of the women going on the Japan trip is from Portland. She lives on a floating houseboat on the Columbia River. We are going to go meet her tomorrow. We are due to have several days of sunny weather and warm temps. The daffodils are 6 inches high and the aromatic Daphne and hellebores are starting to bloom. I think I might have spring fever.