D-Day (Dye Day)
'Dye Day' is here!
After the longest wait, being unable to move into our new house until April of this year, spending over a month working on the studio and dye-space renovation, and figuring out the delivery and import of goods here to Lanzarote to get stock over, I'm finally able to get dyeing again.
You don't realise just how much you miss something until you're unable to do it for almost 7 months. Every time I thought we were close enough to get things going again, something else would come up.
So this week I have been down in the studio, and the first thing I realised, the HEAT. Goodness me, if it was hot in London when I dyed yarn in the summer, its scorching here in Lanzarote. We get temperatures in the mid 30's at this time of year, and if we have a Calima (sandstorm that travels across from Morocco) the temperature can reach up to 38-40c.
But that is NOT me complaining, oh no no no, I absolutely LOVE my new home, and I am so thrilled to be back at the dye pots in that new home. With Roy bringing me coffee, snacks and ice cold drinks intermittently throughout the day, it's an absolute pleasure to be working in my brand new little dye space.
I even have a small awning/portico to keep the doorways shaded during the heat of the day, and also act as perfect 'rafters' from which to hang my yarns to dry from.
A lovely thing also happened when I hung my yarns out to dry today, a neighbour from 4 doors down, came out of their back gate to their car, saw the bright yarns hanging up, and came to see what I was up to, we had a lovely chat and while I don't want to jinx it, perhaps a new knitter will be born soon from her wonderful reaction to the bright colours glowing in the sunshine.
'But what have you been dyeing Jon?' I hear you scream ... perhaps that's just in my head. This week I have been focused on Deeply Wicked semi solid and varigated colourways.
A mix of classic colourways that you know and love, and some new delightful shades too. I've also changed up the semi-solid base to make it slightly more 'woolly' and more value for money with an extra 100m of yarn per skein. Find out more about this new base and which colours I've been dyeing in the next few blog posts.