Re-Discovering Natural Dyeing Part VI - Madder

With this post, I've used up the last of the pre-mordanted yarn with some madder dyeing which was a new experience for me. This madder was purchased dried from Louet sometime around 1997 - another of those "finds" when I moved. I soaked 4 oz in toe of an old knee-hi overnight in a cold water pot. This yielded the most amazing wine red color, which did not really translate into the dyed fiber. I used the usual method of putting pre-wetted yarn in cold pot, brought to a simmer and held for 30 minutes. In the accompanying picture, these are top to bottom: wool with copper, wool with alum, mohair with copper and mohair with alum.

Rediscovering Natural Dyeing Part V - Red Sandalwood

The red sandalwood was in the form of a fine powder and was purchased from Carolina Homespun around 1996 (back when they were still headquartered in NC). About 4 oz was soaked overnight with pot brought to a simmer before adding the yarn. For this pot, it seemed like it would be interesting to soak portions of the yarn with oil (corn oil) prior to putting it in the pot. The idea was to use the oil as a resist of sorts. It did work in a subtile way as can be seen in the photograph. From top to bottom, the yarns are wool with copper, wool with alum, mohair with copper, and mohair with alum.

Re-Discovering Natural Dyeing Part IV - Osage Orange

For this dye pot, I used 2.6 oz Osage orange (all that I had). It was in the form of a coarse ground bark and probably purchased from Louet in 1994. This time I filled the dye pot, dropped in the osage orange in its sack and let it sit overnight. The water was a fairly deep shade of yellow the next morning. Pre-wetted skeins went directly into the cold dyepot, brought to simmering temperature and allowed to simmer for 30 minutes. Results are in the accompanying photo. From top to bottom they are: wool with copper, wool with alum, mohair with copper and mohair with alum. The colors have a brighter clearer quality of yellow compared to Eucalyptus and the copper mordant renders a color I would describe as old gold.

Rediscovering Natural Dyeing Part III - Eucalyptus

For this particular dye pot, I used the same general procedure as before, i.e. soak dyestuff in mesh bag overnight, add to dyepot next day and simmer a few minutes before adding the fiber. The eucalyptus was picked locally by a friend and dried sometime around 2002 - another one of those finds from when I moved. I used about 8 oz. of dried leaves for this dyepot. The color is a clear, but slightly dull yellow when used with alum. The shine of the mohair really doesn't show through with the alum mordant as much as it did with the copper-mordanted mohair. In the photo from top to bottom the yarns are wool with copper, wool with alum, mohair with copper (my favorite) and mohair with alum. The dyepot smelled very nice on the back porch.

A Tale of Two Caplets

At SOAR in 2004, I saw a caplet done in triple crochet using ribbon yarn. It was beautiful. It took me another year to find a ribbon yarn that I liked and a few months thereafter I had a caplet. It is the top one in the photo. The problem was that I found I didn't really like it all that much and it has hung in the closet ever since. Last winter I decided that I would try to crochet myself a net market bag using a grayish tan yarn that I think is a blend of linen and cotton. There is no way to know as this yarn is something I picked up at our Guild's annual Christmas swap and giveaway. Since I didn't have a pattern I improvised, first trying bottom up which I didn't like and so took apart. Next came a top down attempt. Unfortunately this just didn't seem right either, but along the way I looked at it and decided it would be a lovely caplet. This is the one at the bottom in the picture. I really like this one and have worn it twice. It would look even better with wooden beads along the bottom, but I haven't yet figured out how I want to add them. The bottom line is that I did get a caplet, just via a different route than originally envisioned.

Re-Discovering Natural Dyeing Part II - Alkanet Root

For this particular dyepot I used dried alkanet root that I purchased commercially so long ago that I do not know the source, but it has to be at least 15 years old. I put about 6 oz of dried root in a mesh bag (old knee hi) and soaked it overnight. Next day I added the four skeins of yarn and simmered it for 2 hours. The accompanying photo shows from top to bottom - wool with copper, wool with alum, mohair with copper and mohair with alum. The bag with the dyestuff actually burst in the bath resulting in lots of vegetable matter in the yarn. It mostly came out with brushing and beating. According to my books alkanet root yields shades from soft gray-blues to gray greens under alkaline conditions and pinkish shades under acidic conditions depending on the mordant used.

Re-Discovering Natural Dyeing - Part I Mordanting

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.