Natural Dyeing with SweetGeorgia

On today’s Taking Back Friday, I want to talk about how, for me, natural dyeing is my unrequited love. It’s something that I loved and I was passionate about. I wanted to fully commit to it, and for many years it was something that I wanted as a central part of my life. But our relationship got put on hold. Our timing was wrong. I was at a different stage in my life and me and natural dyeing… we just couldn’t make it work. Until now.

So on today’s vlog, it’s finally, finally time for me to tell you about my love of natural dyeing.

For me, the joy and the excitement of natural dyeing is the act of doing it. And if we teach you how to do the natural dyeing, then you get the excitement, joy and the fun. All of that experience is magical, and I want you to experience this too. I want you to fall in love with colour the way that I did.

Thank you for joining me at today’s Taking Back Friday – a space where I come each week to remind both you, and me, how important it is to make time to make things. Also in today’s video, I share the sweater I just finished making. It’s all done… I even wove in the ends. Find the details about the sweater below plus links and more info about the SOS Natural Dyeing Study Group, course and more. See you in the next one!

IN THIS EPISODE

• what I’m wearing in today’s video: The sweater I just finished knitting and am wearing in the video is Laia, designed by Isabell Kraemer. It fits great, instructions are super clear, and was very easy to knit. Mine is knit using our SweetGeorgia Flaxen Silk Fine yarn in Beach House.
• what I mention in the vlog: Here are links to items talked about in today’s video…
  • I mention Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver and Earthues in Seattle, both places through which I had taken natural dye classes in previous years.
  • Regarding the idea of being a maker in love with many different crafts at one time, in the video I suggest visiting The Multicraftual Maker workshop at the School of SweetGeorgia.
  • Other dyeing workshops mentioned that are available at the School: Dyeing Intentional Colour (acid dyeing on wool and protein fibres), Fundamentals of Fibre Reactive Dyes (dyeing on cotton and cellulose yarns), and now Natural Dyeing Basics which works on both protein and cellulose yarns and fibres. In this course, Caitlin teaches all the fundamental things you need to know for natural dyeing.
  • The dress pattern which I’m planning on making with my naturally dyed linen fabric is the Emerald pattern from Made by Rae.
• want to learn more about natural dyeing with us? Join us at our soon-to-start Natural Dyeing Study Group! We are going to focus this entire summer on natural dyeing – the first time we’ve organized a study group for the School. Each week you can concentrate on just a few things at a time. At the end of the 10 weeks, on August 10th, we’ll have a Zoom show and tell. We hope to have further study groups for spinning in the fall, and weaving in the winter. We want to live this practice of focusing on one thing at a time.
  Along with the Natural Dyeing Study Group, we have a Q&A on Zoom with Caitlin on May 26, and two Zoom workshops with Kathy Hattori: Handpainting with Natural Dyes and Indigo Dyeing in June and July, respectively. We hope you join us for some summer natural dyeing fun! If you’re new to the School and interested in joining, start a 14-day trial for only $1, with access to everything that SOS has to offer. Enter the coupon code: CRAFTWITHUS on the plan of your choice on our sign-up page.