The Cloak of Invisibility

Pallium Ad Celandum

It all started a few years ago when I foolishly decided to see if I could find out if in 1724 the ladies of the Blue House almshouses in Frome had their gowns made and dyed blue locally. They received a new one every two years - now that is environmentally sensible! I could not find out very much, but I got approval from the trustees to grow woad, Isatis Tinctoria, in their lovely garden. We had some help and had two wonderful days dyeing  by extracting the indigo from the leaves and dyed silk, cotton and wool samples. During these workshops, Michael, seeing the blue grey colour emerging from the vat speculated that the cloak of invisibility mentioned by the Romans may have been dyed with woad. So from Legend and Myth to reality.
We agreed that if I could get the wool, dye it and knit it would he would wear it. Well, it has taken three years but we have now started the project and hope to raise money for charity. Here he is modelling the black version! the blue one is in the process of being dyed and then hopefully knitted by a team of volunteers.