Catching Up - Live and Let Dye

Okay, I’m way behind in the blog posts. I missed the last AKG meeting and have absolutely had no idea what to write.   In fairness, I didn’t miss the meeting because of a conflict or an overwhelming desire to eat bon bons and watch Oprah reruns.  My sick husband had volunteered to watch our kids, but he wasn’t in any condition to do anything that required more effort than lifting the remote control.  Thus, given the choice between attending the meeting and sparing my husband the antics of our three boys, I opted to spare my husband.  After all, he knows where I live.

Apparently, this was not the meeting to miss.  The meeting topic – Live and Let Dye - and speaker, Judy Forster of Mama Jude’s Plant Dyed Stuff (www.mamajudes.com), were phenomenal.  You could hear a pin drop during her presentation, which covered everything from different dying techniques, what natural materials to use for dying, where you can purchase these materials, and guidelines for safe dying (my favorite is to not drink while dying because you could pick up the wrong container).  Be sure to go to the link and check out the yarn and other products at her Etsy.com store.

Judy also was kind enough to relay her favorite dying resources:

Colors from Nature by Bobbi A. McRae

Nature’s Colors by Ida Grae

The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing by Jim Liles

Ancient Dyes for Modern Weavers by Palmy Weigle

Wild Color by Jenny Dean

A Passion for Color by Sarah Burnett (also available at the AKG Library)

A Weaver’s Garden by Rita Buchanan. 

At the end of the impressive lecture, the AKG was able to shine with its own impressive display of our member’s work:

I can’t wait to see what we have to share with our upcoming superstar speaker, Kathy Zimmerman, this Thursday.