K-or-K

A place for me to share photos, trips and projects with my friends, mostly about knitting,kayaking, and quilting.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Brasstown Autumn

Brasstown, NC, located in the scenic Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina, is home to the John C. Campbell Folk School. I spent last week there, learning how to dye fiber with mushrooms. Fall color was gearing up for a real show by the time I left yesterday. Luckily for me, the week's work with the fantastic fungi allowed me to bring Brasstown's autumn colors home with me. Behold:






Under the guidance of dyer extraordinaire and amateur mycologist, Susan Hopkins, our class chopped, simmered, poured and experimented our way through an astounding variety of mushrooms and colors. What a satisfying way to begin the autumn!

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8 Comments:

At 5:19 PM, Blogger Sheepfreak51 said...

What a wide variety of colours! I truly am surprised. Is there a mushroom dye book that was used for the class?

J

 
At 8:15 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

No way those colors are from mushrooms! How thrilling!
Michele

 
At 10:52 AM, Blogger Tonni said...

All of these were from mushrooms??? WOW! Do I see a "mushroom" vest in the future?

 
At 1:51 PM, Blogger Sandra D. said...

Yes indeed, Michele. Every single color (plus more variations on the theme hiding inside the basket) was from one variety of mushroom or another. Tonni - very possibly a mushroom vest will be forthcoming; obviously there's enough yarn for one. We didn't really use a mushroom dyeing book in class - the instructor has it all in her head from her vast experience. But there are a couple of books: Mushrooms for Color by Miriam Rice and Dorothy Beebee, Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix, and he Rainbow Beneath My Feet by Arleen and Alan Bessette. I have all three and I'll bring to spinning.

 
At 6:03 PM, Blogger Liz said...

Wow. I can't believe you got all that color from mushrooms. I LOVE the purple. LOVE it!

 
At 5:54 PM, Blogger Chris said...

OMG woman! FABULOUS! I love coming to this site . . . and what a great thing to be doing INSTEAD of typing!
Love & Stuff
Chris

 
At 3:15 PM, Blogger Tonni said...

Since it has been sooooo long since you have blogged, I decided to tag you for the "Six things meme" :)

 
At 3:37 PM, Blogger PVP said...

Well, hello Sandra D.! Remember me from Melissa's modular knitting class at JCCFS? Just a few months ago I took another class, this time in natural dyes. A classmate, Brenda, and I swore to the instructor that we had seen mention of a mushroom dyeing class but noone believed us. Brenda found your blog and sent it to me-- we feel vindicated!!

 

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