Steeped in Color

OK, so apparently I managed to skip a week, after promising pictures of the goings-on here. Thing is, the computer is the easiest thing to put off doing. But tonight I get a bit of time, and actually had a chance to upload some pictures.
The berries have gone to nearly full production, so lots of picking, and I made shortcake with some this week - yummy!

The chicks are enjoying their new home, and go take dust-baths outside in their run, and fight over the clover I bring them for treats. They're in the ugly stage, where they look like little vultures or something.

I haven't touched my knitting since last Wednesday (shock!), and have been spinning only to get done what needed to be dyed, and to say I've done some spinning every day for the Tour de Fleece. Really, it seems the week has been about dyeing. After I did my mordanting Wednesday and Jo did hers Thursday, the clothesline looked like this:

Friday we started on the duller tones and the lighter colors. I prefer doing those and the experimental ones first, so if the result isn't great, it can get overdyed in one of the brighter shades. Case in point: the rose shoots I was testing. The book said it was supposed to give a yellow-green, but the result was a tan straw-color. I ended up throwing it in the coreopsis bath to get a richer gold for the final color. Anyway, we did burdock, and greenweed, and bedstraw roots, and madder tops, and Jo had lots of fun, and was very excited for Monday, and the bright colors.

Saturday I did the stuff that I wanted which was not on Jo's list. Nettles, and blackberry shoots, onion skins, and butternuts (we were lucky enough to have a tree fall last week, and there were nuts already on it).

Monday was a long day of dyeing. Five dye-baths, but mostly strong ones for doing multiple dips in darker and lighter tones, and including indigo as the piece de resistance. Jo arrived at 9 and left after 5, and the clothesline was a thing of beauty.

Today has been more! dyeing. Mostly filling in spaces, as it were - things which I put off yesterday, as the important thing was to get Jo's stuff done. The line is full again, and there is a pile of finished stuff. I haven't thrown out the dye-baths yet, though. Several still have color, and I hate to waste it, so want to make sure everything I want in a color is done before I dump it.