Mary Jarvis gave me a skein of white yarn - I thought it was silk at first but, no, it is mercerised cotton. It is also 4-ply. I space dyed it brown and red using Procion MX and it has come out a magnificent mixture of colours - various shades of brown and pinks and a little red. I think I am going to base a large length of material on this.  But I will need a lot more yarn. Mary, where did you get it from? 

I took Michael to Droitwich Hobbycrafts yesterday stocking up on essentials like double-sided sellotape and school PVA and had a look at their dyes and bought some fabric dye pens by Dylon. These look like felt-tipped pens and can used the same way. So I spent some time last night adding to my disperse dyed paisley patterns. They need to be ironed today to set the dye. The purple skeins have been wound off  and are ready to be warped up - when I have five minutes to spare!