After painting inside most of the heart shapes on Mo's pennant with either yellow (myrobalan and weld) or pink (cochineal) I dipped it once into what I thought would be a light pot of indigo very quickly. My goal was to cast a light blue over all and change the yellows to green and the pink to purple. Since the cloth is so small I thought it would be more economical to use my smallest kettle, but that threw all of my accustomed proportions out the window. I ended up with a darker blue than I wanted, even after a very short dip. I had to go back with the paintbrush and try to introduce more yellow and pink on top of the blue to get what I wanted, but this time the wax outlines did not hold the dye inside the shapes and color leaked out around them. Sigh.
Having re-introduced color where I wanted it I let the pennant dry and then waxed over the painted hearts (and the light blue ones too) to keep them that color after further dipping.
My little pot of indigo was impossible to keep accurately reduced so I started over using my usual kettle for the second dip. I noticed after the first dip that the pennant fabric seemed stiff so in this kettle I decided to add hide glue, remembering that I am dealing (quite unusually for me) with protein fibers rather than cellulose. Hide glue is supposed to protect silk and wool from the alkalinity of the indigo pot. I suppose it worked for that but I also found that it protected the wax! This is a big revelation for me, because usually two long dips in indigo renders the wax on fabric flaky and scrofulous. I wanted to go dark with the pennant and dipped over and over to get it that way, but the wax never broke. It did take up some dye itself in some places like the face of the moon. We'll see if that penetrates to the fabric when I remove the wax. I might have a blue moon.
The indigo clung darkly wherever the cloth had been pierced or snagged resulting in sort of random dark patches. That was a surprise, but nothing can be done about it now. The purple I added to the heavens above the moon pretty much disappeared. I don't think I will try to put it back. I am trying to decide if what I have is okay or if I want it to be darker. Last call for indigo! Next...wax removal.