Category: Plant Dyeing

The yarn that wouldn’t

PiaPlant Dyeing

As I mentioned in passing yesterday, I had some non-results with dried walnut on one of my overdye projects. I can’t remember what came first, I think possibly alum and St. John’s Wort solar dye method (= mucky fawn).

Then I tried dried walnut shells, bought in a store, not collected, regrettably. (=beige) Ammonia: no change. Yes, it really lost colour compared to the original.

Another option would be mixing my used dye jars of hollyhock, cochineal and safflower on the odd chance they were not exhausted from the other hanks I showed yesterday. (=this added a slight greyish tint to the beige)

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Dumping the science projects

PiaPlant Dyeing

For a while I’ve been recording facts about each yarn I’ve plant dyed, I’ve made solar and indirect light exposure tests (more about that when I have the energy to make a list), the pH values, the modifiers.

Well, I felt it was time to lose that for a while.

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Operation cotton – weld

PiaChit Chat

Having promised that I’d do something with my weld and some failed, beige fabrics from last year’s plant printing tests, I wrapped half a sheet around plants, water and more plants on top and the other half sheet loosely crumbled on top, floating. As well as one of the failed cotton skeins that I’ve been going on about forever but never shown yet. (I have just two more than I want to put into some dyebath again, for, like, the 5th time, THEN!)

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All that weld

PiaGarden

…and nothing to do with it. That’s what I’ve been thinking every time I pass by my second year weld, lush, tall and proud. Because as I mentioned in the fennel post A. I don’t have a new dye yarn supply, B. I don’t really want to keep dyeing samples with cheap yarn, C. I don’t have any projects planned that require a large quantity of yellow yarn, and D. I just haven’t felt like it anyway. Which is a shame, because it is one of the plants I want to keep using in the more limited range that I’ve set out to use in the future (rather than try all the things).

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