Indigo Dyeing Workshop

Week 4 = Cataloging Magazines, Books and Patterns
Day 4 = January 25, 2014

     Today was a very fun, educational and eye-opening day. As I mentioned I would yesterday, I took an Indigo Dyeing Workshop at The Charleston Museum this morning from 10 to 12. The story of getting to the class is another one of my adventures and I will tell you about it later in this blog.

     The class began with a 15-minute history lesson from Rachel Chesser, the PR and Events Coordinator for the museum. It included information on the process of dyeing and how Indigo Dyeing was tied to the Charleston area. It was interesting to learn that the items dyed with indigo only turn blue once they are taken out of the dye and allowed to oxidize. I was fascinated to hear about Eliza Lucas Pickney. This small excerpt below is from Wikipedia.org.

          "Eliza Lucas Pinckney (December 28, 1722–1793) changed agriculture in colonial South Carolina, where she developed indigo as one of its most important cash crops. Its cultivation and processing as dye produced one-third the total value of the colony's exports before the Revolutionary War. Manager of three plantations^[1] at age 16, Pinckney had a major impact on the economy. She was the first woman to be inducted into South Carolina's Business Hall of Fame."

     After the history lesson there was a show and tell of some of the presumed Indigo dyed museum pieces. The process to verify if the pieces are truly Indigo dyed would harm the pieces so they have not been verified. These are some of the pieces.

  

  

  

     Once the history lesson was over, we went to the classroom where Tamara Goff, the instructor and my friend, showed us a few items that she and some others had dyed.

     The amazing thing about indigo dyeing is, when your items are in the vat as pictured here, the part that is under the water looks green and the part above looks blue because of the oxidization.

     I had a piece of fabric that I dyed and apparently the oxidization process shows much better on fabric than it does on yarn being dyed. Check out this series of pictures as I pull my fabric out of the vat and it oxidizes.

     Amazing isn't it? I was amazed at how fast the color changed. The final coloring is astounding (see below). The tie dye looking spots are where the fabric did not get spread out enough in the vat, therefore the Indigo was not able to permeate those sections.

     Right now I have my 3 hanks of yarn (1 each of 100% Cotton, 100% Wool and a combination 75% Superwash Merino Wool / 25% Nylon) sitting in their water/vinegar solution overnight in order to set the dye, after having been thoroughly rinsed. Tomorrow I'll pull them out and let them dry. I'll have fun seeing if the colors change any more.

     I look forward to sharing the results of my indigo dyeing with you... but wait, don't you want to know about my adventure? This morning it was 24 degrees and I was going to be taking my husband's car (so he could have my truck and the car seats) to meet up at my friend Eileen's house and go from there to the class together. Being a smart New Englander, I went to start the car before I left so that it would be warm. To my surprise, the heat, radio, blinkers and cigarette lighter all didn't work. Now if the story ended there, it wouldn't be an adventure would it?

    With the cigarette lighter not working, that meant my GPS wouldn't work either and I had never been to Eileen's house before. So I make a mad dash into the house to print out directions from the computer, easy. I finally leave about 10 minutes late, no big deal. I get literally a few streets away from her house and misread the directions. I ended up going in the wrong direction for 10 minutes. After turning around, I frantically called her saying, "I'm totally lost, help me." Those of you that know me, you can pick your jaws up off the floor. Yes, I got lost... let's move on.

     When I finally arrive at Eileen's house I'm 35 minutes late and we rush to the workshop. We finally get there about 10 minutes late. To add to the adventure, when I got back to Eileen's and started my husband's car, the heat was blasting, radio was blaring and the right blinker was on. As Eileen said, apparently gremlins had messed with my husband's car.

     So today's adventure is over. I look forward to starting a new one tomorrow. See you then.

Question of the Day

What items have you dyed?

Knitting and Dyeing,

Victoria