One thing that I did not anticipate when I opened my shop in Shelburne Falls, was meeting so many interesting and lovely people and how their stories would affect me and even send my work in new directions that I had never considered. People living nearby and folks visiting from other parts of the country – all talking about their work -knitters, weavers, dyers- all lovers of cloth and fiber. Just  a couple of weeks ago, a woman came into the shop to ask if I had ever dyed with mushrooms. I haven’t, but I was intrigued. Noreen had just moved to town and offered to take me mushroom hunting. Now I am thinking about dyeing with mushrooms, and I am thinking muted colors, browns, perhaps an olive green.

Fast forward to this past Friday evening. I decided stay open a bit late and I’m so glad I did!

Because this lovely lady from Virginia stopped by. Kelly is a weaver and was taking a class at our jewel of a weaving school Vavstuga  located just around the corner from my shop.We had a great conversation and mushroom dyeing came up and Kelly mentioned that she dyed wool with mushrooms and got some amazing colors. Before leaving the shop, Kelly purchased some of my pieces including the finished hibiscus piece, and was so nice to take a photo of me wearing it before she left.

Oh but wait there is so much more! About 15 minutes later Kelly came back to show me her wonderful, amazing, beautiful scarf, hand knit and hand dyed from mushrooms! Just look at these colors!! And Kelly’s beautiful handwork. 
Kelly took notes of each mushroom and which color it produced. Some are from the same dyepot at different times of exhaustion.WOW!

Kelly also told me about a Mushroom symposium taking place in British Columbia in October- and here is a link to that- https://fungiandfibre2016.org

Thank you Kelly!