Natural Dyeing - New Beginnings

I continue to do lots of experiments with natural dyeing. The series described below were all done on single ply 50/50 wool/mohair yarn that I got as part of a swap a few years ago. This is a fairly coarse yarn that would do very nicely for a rug, or outerware. These dyestuffs were all ones that I had either gathered locally or saved from years before. The first set of skeins were pre-mordanted with alum, copper and iron, respectively and dyed with avocado peels that I had frozen over a year before for a friend for use in a dyeing class that was later cancelled. I had never used peels before, and found the grayish greens to be quite a pretty surprise. The mordant does make a difference in the color produced, but it is subtile.

The next set of skeins were again pre-mordanted with alum, copper and iron, respectively and dyed with fresh goldenrod. The top row of skeins was dyed with golden rod leaves and the bottom row with flowers. I really liked the colors produced and use of leaves vs. flowers and type of mordant really makes a difference.

I've often wondered if stored dried dyestuffs lose potency over time. These two skeins were mordanted with alum and copper and dyed with marigold flowers that I had grown and dried about 15 years prior, so at least for dried marigolds (stored at room temperature in dark), they do retain their potency.

The next single skein was mordanted with alum and dyed with privet. Chinese privet is considered a non-native invasive plant, and a friend was very happy to have me wack down her privet. I read somewhere that privet (type not specified) could be used to obtain green so it was a bit disappointing to get tan instead. This was also a dyestuff that had been dried and stored for about 6 years.

The final set of skeins were dyed with green walnut hulls that I gathered in the yard two years ago, and allowed to get mushy in a bucket in the basement. I used no mordant for one skein in this case because walnut is a substantive dye, meaning there are enough tannins in it to act as a mordant, and then also used alum mordant for a second skein just to see what difference it made. I really like the more golden brown of the first skein. The third skein is dyed with no mordant, but using the same dyepot a second time. The paler shade tells me that the dye bath was losing potency in this case.