Cochineal. Because.

It's been a rather grey day here, and that makes me long for a bit of colour. Fortunately that's easy - here, have some small bit of cloth coming out of a cochineal dye bath:

Isn't that a nice shade? I'm quite fond of cochineal - I prefer cooler, darker shades of red to the more orange tones of madder, so I'm more a cochineal girl than a madderwoman, actually. (The combination of the two can be gorgeous though!)