So, last Wednesday the Husband told me, “You’re dyeing on Saturday.” I’m like, wait, “What?”

He had registered me for a virtual dyeing class with Shepherd’s Cross, which was where he learned to shear. I didn’t know much about what I was going to do until Friday night after the class materials arrived. I had to be Zooming by 8:30 am the next morning!

We were going to dye yarn, yarn balls, roving, and locks. So, there I was, furiously balling yarn at 8:00 am Saturday morning, everything in a tangle, and the Husband got triggered. He became frantic and anxious as I raced the clock trying to wind the yarn into a ball.

Back in the day, as his submarine was pulling into a foreign port, he had gone down the ladders to fetch tugboat “shot” lines and found them all in a tangle! No one knew who had inproperly stowed the lines, but when they found that rookie “NUB” sailor, there would be hell to pay! The tugboat was already in transit to the boat. If the tug got there and the lines weren’t ready, the tug would leave and have to come back later. The Captain was furious, so there the Husband and three other sailors sat, frantically trying to untangle the ropes. The pressure was immense, the penalty would be severe if the tug had to leave, and no one wanted to be floating around, hanging out in a shipping lane/harbor, waiting for the tugboat to come back. My tangled yarn became his tangled ropes! I reminded him, there wasn’t a tugboat coming this time! Be calm, I was only going to dye.

Anyways, I wanted to share with you some of the things I came out of class with. We dyed with Gaywool Acid Dyes. The yarn and roving were from Shepherd’s Cross and the locks are from my own Gulf Coast Native sheep, hastily washed in time to take up the last bits of dye from the pots! It was a great class and I was fortunate to have a one-on-one with Dr. Dickinson for about 4-5 hours of instruction!