Drømmegarnet -- The Dream Yarn

     Søndag morgen vågnede Uglemor med opskriften på et vandmelonfarvet garn i hovedet. Det er et gammelt ønske, men den slags garn er håndlavet og skal bestilles hjem fra USA. Med porto, moms, told osv bliver det bare for dyrt.
     Men nu havde jeg drømt, hvordan det skulle farves, med hvilke planter eller kombinationer af planter og hvordan det skulle vindes op.

For many years MotherOwl has been wanting a watermelon coloured sock yarn. But the only way to get one is from an American e-shop. It's not cheap and with taxes, postage etc. the price was in the unattainable end.
Then Sunday morning MotherOwl dreamt of how she was dyeing her own  watermelon yarn and woke up with a complete recipe in her head. She just had to try.

     Efter en indledende gang kluddermor gik vi i gang. 1. punkt var farvning med cochenille. Efter en farvesession i vores plantefarvegruppe havde vi delt det overskydende farvebad, og der var stadig meget farve i. Perfekt til vandmelonfarve.

After some initial messing up the winding -- unravelling a 21 meter long skein takes time! -- the first part was dyed watermelon pink. We had had a dyeing session in our natural dyers' group, and we had split the remaining dye bath from cochineal between us.

Næste omgang var næste afsnit af garnet i det nu tyndere farvebad.

Next part was an easy one, just use the now more spent dye bath.

     Dernæst blev cochenillevandet hældt på en dunk, og Uglemor cyklede ud og plukkede vild gulerod. Det var lige på det sidste, så det blev en laaaang tur. Men resultatet blev som i drømmen.

The cochineal dye bath was poured into a jug -- there's still some red in it -- and MotherOwl went for a bike ride picking Queen Anne's lace for the next part. This resulted in a surprisingly long trip, as the season for QAL is nearing its end. But the result was just as in the dream.

     Rejnfan gror ude i haven, så det var let. I morgen mødes vi atter i farvegruppen, og så bliver de to gule farver tryllet grønne i et indigobad. Jeg glæder mig.

Tansy for the next, and last, part grows in the Owlery, so no long rides needed for that. Tomorrow the dye group will meet again, and the yellow parts will be turned into greens by the magic of an indigo vat.