Spinners pass on their wool dying traditions
The new guard took over dying the wool recently at the Dannevirke Spinners and Weaver’s Dye Day.
Sarah Kuggeleijn and Tracy Bowie have been learning from veteran dyer Elaine Weber all the techniques that have been passed on from generations of spinners.
Spinners came from many clubs to dye their wool.
“It saves us having to do it ourselves,” said Anne McGregor who came from Masterton with two carloads of members from Wairarapa Spinners and Weaver Club. Coppers were heating, fed by wood fires, each with a plant to create a colour. There were traditional poroporo (green), silver dollar (red), walnut (brown) and flax (dark brown) and English plants, including convolvulus (green), dahlia (yellow), buddleia (pale green), onion (rusty red) and ivy (green).
While “dyed in the wool” means set in their ways, the spinners don’t stick to traditional plants and techniques — red cabbage, madder root and hawthorn were experimented with on the day in a gas copper and food dye was used in a microwave for multi-coloured effects.
Results can also be affected by adding different quantities of mordant, which sets the colour, the time the wool sits in the copper and the volume of plant material used.
By 1pm the wool line was hanging with wool of all nature’s colours and by 3pm the spinners left armed with the material for the next project in autumn.