The pots are brewing

We arrived early in the morning at Rose and Henry Dedman's home, they had been up for hours getting the fire and the dye pots going. Henry was still chopping wood for the large fire under the dye pots.

Rose had all the plants cut up and simmering waiting for our wool. The pots she uses were her mothers, where Rose learn how to natural dye. The aroma was wonderful, no chemical smells just nature! It was a beautiful day.

A close up of some of the pots, starting from the back rabbit brush, ground lichen and sage.

Fresh canyaigre (wild carrot) in the front and dried wild carrot in the back with a handful of baking soda mixed in.

Navajo tea, my fabric (premordanted with alum) on the right and wool yarn (premordanted with alum) on the left and natural yarn in the middle. The color difference was fascinating.
I brought some Navajo tea home and have been dying cotton with it and it also turned out a wonderful orange. I was so surprised.

My wool fabric in rabbit brush, it turned a much richer yellow gold after it simmered awhile.

Rebecca (she has a great blog- http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/), Rose and myself stirring the pots. The piece I'm holding up is from the lichen pot.

Some of the yarn drying on the fence. My fabric is not there, after it came out of the dye pots I put it in plastic bags and left it a couple of days before I rinsed out the dye in the mountain rivers as we camped our way back home through Colorado. I'll post these pictures soon.
Another great web site is- http://weavinginbeauty.com/ Mary the coordinator for all the workshops has this site and lists all the Navjo weaving happenings in the area. The dye class for next summer is already posted. It was a beautiful experience, I hope some of you are able to attend.