Hatchtown Dye Day

Our spinning group meets once per month at a different person’s home. Pam Child of Hatchtown Farm in Bristol decided to host our group in August and to organize a natural dye day for us. We were encouraged to bring skeins of yarn from home, mordant our wool ahead of time, and Pam set up all the fixings to do one pot of onion skins and another of indigo. What fun and who knew?

I had only dyed yarns once before, ages ago. At that time, I had a pot of cochineal going and the yarn reached a perfectly-lovely shade of light pink which I adored. Then, I decided to continue cooking “to set the color” for another hour and a half. What emerged was a frightening shade of intense salmon. I knit the baby sweater anyway, and upon receiving the gift, the new mom said, “Thank you. I’ll be certain to never lose the child in that color!” Ah well. 

Pam was a lot more knowledgeable. She and helpers managed to get the pot of onion skins heated and the indigo vat readied, and this time, I had much better success. I love my skeins and can’t wait to dream up something to knit or weave. What a lovely activity for a summer’s  day. Check it out.

—Photography and text by Christine Macchi

 

2 thoughts on “Hatchtown Dye Day”

  1. Beautiful photographic record of a colorful day! How generous the world of plants are to give we lovers of fiber such gifts!

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