Ice dying wool

I love doing local artsy classes with Montana, and Green Bluff is full of them! Today we went to the local Green Bluff yarn store to learn how to ice dry wool.

Montana has an entire dye laboratory downstairs, but ice dying is a new method.

The undyed wool looks like spaghetti when it is first put in the bin.

You start by dumping ice on top of it.

Then you sprinkle super fine dye pigment on top of the ice. We had to wear masks and gloves for this project (which we were doing outside in the 90 degree heat!) Bad memories of Covid in the summer came to mind.

Slowly the ice starts to melt, seeping some of the color with it.

Cool to see everyone’s color choices.

Then it’s back to the yarn shop to wait out the first melt. What a gorgeous view!

Montana is right at home in a knitting circle. Actually there is a little overlap between this knitting community and my mahjong group!

After an hour we came back and flipped the skeins and added more ice and dye.

This was my concoction - I have literally NO idea of what colors this will make when it is finished. But we are done for the day, and then the workshop leader (who owns a local yarn dying business) will simmer these to set the color and bring back our finished products next week. So we wait!