Still Experimenting

I planned on spending the weekend with my girlfriend and her husband at their permanent campsite Smokey Hollow - Lodi

All week I had looked forward to taking a break and chilling with my friends.  Some of the other campers were interested in the dyed scarf I had given my friend and wanted to make some.

I hauled up all the dyeing equipment scarves and dyes along with other craft projects.  You know I cant just sit and watch the birds go by.

Oh no not me.

As soon as I pulled into the driveway I was hit with so many emotions.

This was a campground Wayne and I spent every weekend of every summer for over 5 years.

Big mistake going back there this year - or maybe not - it brought back so many memories they just came rushing in at me.

Especially because I was staying with Our close friends.  We have been friends since grade school and her husband was one of Wayne's very best friends.

I did manage to get through Friday day and Friday night, but even before going to bed I knew I would be heading home on Saturday.  It is too soon to be staying at a place where it holds so many many memories

They are good memories but it was too sad for me to handle this year.  Maybe next!

Anyway in between all the feelings I did manage to get the girls to dye some scarves, leaving them overnight in the shed (rain was predicted and it did show up in the evening)

Revealed in the early morning as showers were expected again, hung them to dry and wait for the girls to come back for their instructions to finish the process.

Black walnut used of course for the brown.  The pink was my second attempt at the Solomon Seal berries, and the yellow came from a bouquet of fresh flowers one of the other camp ladies offered to us.  Also in the yellow (which I knew the results before dyeing) was goldenrod -  I did not wrap mine in the goldenrod and the other lady did - she got a much brighter and stronger yellow than I did.  

Now here is were the lessons are learned -  the pink Solomon Seal does not hold its color - it washes out into a yellow/pinkish tan.  Which I had warned them about to begin with.  Even though we stopped the boiling process before the berries turned brown as my first attempt, the color was a beautiful pink but did not hold under the washing process.

Today I'm doing another attempt, but this time I'm boiling the scarf with the berries along with vinegar and once the boiling starts I'm going to add salt to see if the color will hold.

Fingers crossed - experiment experiment experiment - hahahaha remember I said I wasn't going to show you my scarves -  Well obviously I lied.

Once I get my technique down I wont keep bothering you. But the process is so interesting, thought maybe you would like to know how its going along.  

In addition to scarf dyeing the plan was to work on decorating artificial pumpkins.  I did these last night around 9pm 

Now its time to do some sewing and let my scarf set in the pot.