It’s interesting to talk to fellow dyers. As a rule, from the ones I’ve talked to of course (hardly an exhaustive sample), the larger scale the dyer, the more scientific their dyeing.

That is, the more careful and precise they are. They care deeply about repeatable results. They care, like scientists, about knowing when they put X on the yarn/fiber they will get Y out. This all makes perfect logical sense to me.

I am not that sort of dyer.

Ideas for yarns spring full blown into my head, then I go to the dyepot to figure out how to make them real.

Ideas for rovings spring full blown while I’m standing in front of the boiling pot going, “Huh, what color next?” If one doesn’t, I just pour some dye in and see if the resulting color inspires me. It usually does.

I do not calculate dye. I don’t make stock solutions. I deal with still powdered dye. I like it that way.

Dyeing, for me, is a completely and utterly purely creative process. I add dyes until it looks like I want. I blend as I go. Dyeing, for me, is as far from a logical, scientific process as I can make it.

I like it that way.

~The Gnome