So much has happened lately…

 

Natural Dyeing 07232008

So much has happened lately that I’m so full of things to share that I hardly know where to start.  Well, take a deep breath, Dianne from Creatively Dyed Yarns came and stayed at my house for a few days.  She got here Monday and just left today, and boy we did some dyeing, a lot of sharing of ourselves, our love of knitting, dyeing and everything in-between.  I wish I’d gotten some pictures of her and Princess while they were here.  So many things were happening, that I didn’t even think of it.  She took some pictures of me milking my goat.  You can see those on her blog.

She taught me some tricks about handpainting with acid dyes on some superwash Merino that I had for experimenting.  I did some natural dyeing and explained how I do it, answered questions.  I hope she learned half as much from me as I did from her.

I’ve been dyeing all day today and this is what’s outside on the drying rack as I write.  I also have some more cooling in the dyepot.  They are logwood and cochineal.  I dyed some of the cochineal on some superwash Merino sock yarn.  I’ll share those pictures later with you, when they’ve dried and they are hanging out to dry.

 

 

 

 

My order from Zeilinger’s Wool finally came today!  I got back some gorgeous Finn roving from my ravatar, Daisy and my white Finn ram, Randy.  I also had some lucious combed top from my white Romeldale, Dakota done and it’s to dye for.  Daisy is in the front of the picture, as usual, hamming it up for the camera.  She’s my Ravatar on Ravelry, except I cropped the picture for her lovely head shot.  Dakota, my Romeldale that I had done in the lovely combed top, is in the back of the picture.

I haven’t decided whether to sell the roving and the combed top undyed or dyed.  If dyed, do I do it with natural dyeing or should I do some handpainted acid dyes?  So many questions and so few answers, at least for now.

 

Dianne taught me a lot of good tricks for handpainting with acid dyes.  I’d handpainted rovings before, I’d used the microwave before, as well as I’d done some solid dyeing and some monochromatic dyeing in my big turkey roaster crockpot.  When I thought about it later, I realized that I hadn’t done any handpainting on yarn!  Can you believe that?  It’s true, and so I was all ears, a few thumbs and slower than Christmas, but having a blast with Dianne.  I tried some colors that remind me of Key West.  Dianne and I had both been there, so I guess it was on my mind when she asked me what colors I wanted to use.  When she said that I kind of panicked.  I hadn’t thought about which color combinations I would use and then bamm, I was supposed to come up with something.  I laughed and told her that it probably wasn’t what she would have picked.  She told me that she had some of the very same colors on her first handpainting as I did.  I dunno, do you think great minds think alike?

What do you think?

   

             

 

Not to bad for a first attempt

 

I’d better quit while I’m ahead?  Anyway, my thanks to Dianne for showing me a few new things.  I hope she comes back to visit soon, when the weather is better for dyeing!

 

 

 

 

Bloomin’ all over and picking them too!

The St. John’s Wort is in bloom and it’s blooming everywhere on my property, especially in the full sun.

I went out and gathered a quart sized baggie this morning and you can’t tell that I’ve picked any. I’ll be harvesting more over the next several days and should have plenty to play with in my dye pot.

Later when DH gets home we’re going out mushroom hunting in the woods.  We have a state forest behind us and there are plenty of coyotes, cougars, bear, etc. that I’d prefer not to run into by myself.  If there are two of us talking we’ll scare them off before we see them.  When I walk in the woods without him, I take the dogs with me.  However, I don’t want the dogs around when looking for mushrooms because they will either trample them or try to eat them, neither are good ideas.

Did I tell you I tried to blow the house up and kill my son?  Well that was the other day, everyone and everything is fine.  That was the day I forgot I was making Feta Cheese.  I’ll have to tell you that story when I share my Feta cheese making in a future post.  Stay tuned…

 

New group on Ravelry - Plants to Dye For

Ok, so I moved my blog over to WordPress and now Ravelry doesn’t have anything to show for the move.  Well I do, I started a new group on Ravelry the other day called “Plants to Dye For”, it’s all about dyeing with natural plants.  I’ll be writing a three part article on Natural Dyeing for the weekly newsletter on Ravelry (TWIR).  The first article is scheduled for April 28th and it will focus on natural dye gardens.  The second article will be about wildflowers weeds,  mushrooms and lichen.  The third will be on an overview of natural dyeing.

 

Dyeing can’t get more natural than this!

Dyeing can’t get more natural than this!
Originally uploaded by bellavitafarm

Mother nature doing some of her dyeing. The pokeberry bush berries burst onto the snow, dyeing the snow a beautiful red violet. I prefer to dye inside during this kind of weather!

 

Mordant and Dyeing Times

The natural dyes previously listed in the blog are all done with the following methods. All mordants were mixed in pot of water and brought to a simmer. The skeins of yarn were then added and allowed to simmer for one hour. Then the heat source was turned off and the yarn was allowed to soak overnight in the mordant solution.

The dyestuff was used at a 2:1 ratio, twice the amount of dye material to the wool weight (often referred to as WOG - weight of goods). This was brought to a simmer and allowed to continue simmering for 30 minutes. The dyestuff was strained off and the strained dyewater was poured back into the pot. The yarn was added and allowed to simmer for 30 minutes. After the yarn was removed it was spun to remove excess water then rinsed in clear water and spun again before hanging to dry. When I refer to spun, basically spin the hank of yarn around your wrist to sling out excess water.

The brazilwood and logwood were purchased from a supplier. All other materials were gathered locally, mostly from my property. The brazilwood chips were added to a pot of water and allowed to soak overnight before proceeding with the usual dyeing procedure. The logwood was an extract (purple) and was just mixed in a pot of water before using. No presoaking was necessary for the extract.

 

Brazilwood

Brazilwood bark extract was used.

Pre-mordants used were L-R: Alum, Tin, Copper, Iron

Dyed on Shetland white wool.

No assists were used.

First two samples show Alum pre-mordant with 15 minutes in dyebath and second was 30 minutes.

 

Goldenrod - leaves and stems

Goldenrod - leaves and stems were used.

Pre-mordants used L-R: Alum, Tin, Copper, None

Dyed on Shetland white wool.

No assists were used.

 

Goldenrod - flowers

Goldenrod flowers were used.

Pre-mordants used L-R: Alum, Tin, Copper, None

Dyed on Shetland white wool.

No assists were used.

 

Zinnia

Zinnia using the flowers.

Pre-mordants L-R: Alum, Tin, Copper, Iron

Dyed on Shetland white wool.

No assists were used.

 

Tansy

Tansy using the flowers.

Pre-mordants used L-R: Alum, Tin, Copper, None

Dyed on Shetland white wool.

No assists were used.