Not the Blues

I'm sometimes asked if I have any blue wool - not often, people don't seem to notice, or they don't say. A friend of mine breeds Wensleydale sheep and I dye the yarn for her; she is a 'blue' person so I set up an indigo vat to explain. The photo below is the surface of the fermentation vat, which I think is so pretty - much prettier than the blue wool!

Anyway, by using indigo (or woad) you get a completely different set of colours to the other mordant dyes. And they just don't go together - well, I don't think so, and my friend agreed. Overdye using indigo on weld for greens for example, and you get emeralds and spring grass colours - quite bright - instead of olives and bronzy greens. So she is going to have to learn to do her own blues! And as I am not a 'blue' person, it was easy to make a decision not to include the blues. Some of the greys you can obtain have a bue-ish tint, especially when next to certain other colours.

All the other colours seem to reflect the environment we live in - obvious really I suppose!

Hay on Wye is twinned withTimbuktu and earlier this year some Mali - an leaders were in town and they were just so stunning in their Indigo robes and white headress with such dark skin - amazing!

That's where indigo belongs.