A day of natural dyeing . . . in France

It is not a secret I love dyeing yarn and I am always curious to know how other people are doing it. I have been reading a few blogs from dyers in French and found out a few weeks before my visit to France about the new dyeing class from Mademoiselle C.

Her designs are a delight and I have always admired her yarn on Etsy.

So when she opened her Atelier with dyeing classes I couldn't wait to schedule one.

It was 4 hours of great pleasures.

I learnt new techniques very different than the ones from my other classes.

In the US, I have learnt that the yarn must be mordanted first and then the color is applied

but here we did the opposite.

The mixing of the dye and the water was also done differently with very little water.

Also we only used all our samples in one bath, just one after another until the bath was almost clear (here 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th bath, from darker to lighter color).

We also got to experiment with other mordant such as copper and iron, which I had never done before.

This experience was a lot easier for me because we used metric system instead of the US measurement system. I understood also that mixing color before pouring into the water might not be the solution to get the color you want but multiple baths might be a better option.

I can't wait to use again what I have learnt on all the yarn I have collected over the winter.