Several years ago, for reasons that I no longer remember, I had some white shetland and white mohair yarn spun up as singles. I also have no record or memory of the mill that did the spinning. A big box of this was one of those discoveries made during the move from Apex to Efland (now almost two years ago). Another discovery was all these natural dye materials that I did not even know that I had. It seems natural to bring the two together. As a first step, I pre-mordanted the yarn. I decided on aluminum and copper since I already had them - Copper sulfate at the rate of 2 oz/lb (2.6 lbs total for 5 skeins each wool and mohair) and potassium aluminum Sulfate at the rate of 3 oz/lb + 6 tablespoons cream of tartar (5 skeins each of wool and mohair). I dissolved the metal salts completely in warm water before filling the pot. The yarn was simmered (not boiled) in a huge pot outside for 1/2 hour and allowed to cool in the pot. The accompanying photo shows the yarn hanging to dry. The plan was to dye a total of four skeins in each of five different dye baths. This will give me a comparison of wool and mohair with two different mordants.
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