Here is a photo of the results of the indigo dyeing session at a friend's house this past weekend:

These had all been dyed with Osage orange heartwood sawdust last weekend, and were a variety of bright yellows.  Interestingly, the ones that I thought would be most green, the lighter yellows, were the most teal, and the richest midhue greens came from the skeins that had been dyed the most saturated yellow.  The vat we used was much stronger than I had assumed it would be, and so the color range was richer and much more different from the 'usui' hues I was expecting.  In any case, when it comes to natural dyeing, I always have more fun with the unexpected, or at least most of the time I do.  Unexpected richness and jewel tones came of the session, and the resultant colors that came out made me recall an old New England legend, the story of Ocean-Born Mary.

Ocean-Born Mary was born on a ship bound for Boston in 1720.  The ship was set upon by pirates during the voyage, and just as the pirates were going to put the passengers to the sword, the pirate captain was suddenly surprised by the sound of a baby crying below deck.  Upon investigating, he learned that a Mrs. Wilson had just given birth below deck.  He descended to the hold, and asked to see the newborn girl.  She had been born with a head covered with fuzzy bright orange hair.

The pirate captain announced that he would spare the life of the ship's passengers if the parents would agree to name the newborn child Mary, after his mother.  They readily agreed.

Before the pirates departed, the pirate captain called for something to be brought from his ship.  It turned out to be a bolt of "sea-colour'd silk brocade from farthest China", which, said the pirate captain, was to be used to make a wedding dress for the infant Mary when she became of a marriageable age.

I have heard that there are remnants of the sea green silk brocade, off-cuts from when the precious silk was finally cut to make a wedding dress for Mary, which have survived to this day and which are kept in a museum in Henniker, NH.

These colors are my homage to Ocean-Born Mary.

It's been a while!  Fallow time followed the completion of the Large Scratchy Wool Stash Buster Blanket a couple of months ago.

Still nothing on the loom yet, but here's a photo of the 30/2 silk I've been dyeing yellow in preparation for dips in the indigo vat to make a range of greens, which is to eventually go onto the AVL to weave a series of silk scarves in a 16-shaft pattern.  Below see a photo of some of the skeins, including a hank of one of the greens I've made using Osage orange/indigo.