HANDPAINTED YARN AND SP QUESTIONS

My head is still reeling from all the info I tried to cram into it during the three days of the handpainted yarn workshop. Michelle was a fantastic teacher, super knowledgeable about natural dyes, color theory and how to put it all together. After talking about color theory and looking at her work we looked at pictures and chose some just for the colors in them. We then spent time matching colors in our pics using watercolors and then painting an image using the pallette we created. Michelle translated our colors into dye recipes and we started painting away. The first skein took hours but then the process started to make sense and it finally went a bit faster.

The skein in this picture was my first--wool mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. I painted several more as well. Some cotton, some silk and more wool mordanted in just alum. They are busy curing--takes a couple of weeks--and when finished will post photos. We worked a lot with indigo and Michelle took away much of my fear about doing this on my own at home. I can hardly wait to get my dyes and do some more painting. Mordants were covered as well and she gave me many new ideas about using different ones to manipulate the results. Three days of very hard work but so worth it.

Shelby's questions:
1) What is your favorite season of the year?
It used to be summer when I was younger because it meant "beach time" but now it's late spring when all the bulbs bloom
2) Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Nepal--beautiful mountains, interesting valleys, lovely people, beautiful handicrafts, tasty food, interesting architecture---to many reasons to visit.
3) If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be?
Cambodia and Viet Nam
4) If you could pick any job, and be paid well, what would it be?
Puppeteer
5) If you were going on vacation for 1 week, and had to take ONLY one project with you, what would it be?
Socks, of course as they are light-weight, small and easy to pick up and put down.
6) If you won a shopping spree to your favorite Yarn shop, what would you get??
Something handpainted, handspun, an interesting blend of wool and ??