CLASS: LOW WATER IMMERSION DYING / TEACHER: KAT ALLISON

LOCATION: SUFFOLK, VA

Playing with Kat Allison is always an adventure. She is a rule breaker, trouble maker, fab fiber artist, swirling creative vortex, good friend and adjective slinger.

On this year’s first spring outside-type Saturday we met at Terri’s house for some fiberful fun. We filled 5 gallon buckets with fabrics and yarns of all kinds of natural fibers. We mixed up concentrated Procion dyes and started pouring! After a few minutes of joking about how we should have maybe measured…. (nope) we dumped in some soda ash fixative. Then we added another layer of fibers and did the whole process again. At the end of the day, each bucket had 5-6 layers of dyed goods in it.

The only rule we did not break (I swear) was leaving the buckets alone for 48 hours to batch so that the colors would be super vibrant. When we finally got to wash out the dye and sneak a peek, everything was beautiful!

WHAT I LEARNED: Really, you have to leave it to batch for 48 hours (or longer). The colors were amazing. I always cheat and wash it after 24 hours cuz I can’t wait.

WHAT I LOVED: Playing in the sunshine did my heart a world of good! Kat is a fab teacher and a positive force on the planet. Terri is a really good sport too — we made a mess!