community of dyers

Yes. Can do it that way ,where you hang it out to dry and then fold and tie, or can fold wet, tie, and let dry, will take 2-3 days til totally dry and then dye. Gives a different appearance dying dry vs wet, experiment.

Releaf

I'm not sure what you mean by eliminating the soda ash soak, but we do line dry everything that we pre-soak.

We pull the items out of the pre-soak bucket, wring them out, and line dry them before tying them. My daughter does the tying and she prefers that I (the official pre-soaker and dyer) leave the items slightly damp. If they're too dry, the soda ash comes wafting out and she has to wear a mask when she's tying. She says the dryness also makes it harder to get the sinew to hold and easier for it to break. It's a fine line, really. If they're too wet, we don't get good saturation.

You can tie them wet and then let them dry, but it takes a very long time and we don't have the patience.