Fir cones 2

12. September 2013 PiaPå dansk

Last year I did a brief experiment with cones and a rather boring result.

I wanted to know, however, if mordanting the yarn would make a difference, so I mordanted the original skein from last year with alum.

Got plenty of cones, boiled them good with some potash and waited until it had cooled and the pH gone down again. In with yarn, heat, sit in a bucket for 2 days.

The yarn is very dark chocolate brown when you take it out, like the dyebath, and feels oddly soapy?! But as soon as you rinse it, this is what you get:

I then added a silk skein and left in there for a few days. Disappointing light beige, so heated it for a bit. This looked so promising that I actually added the wool one more time! Simmered and left for a day. Very nice brown! Only… the day after they were dry and kinda pink…

While I was blooded and believed in brown I entered one of my failed cotton skeins (the ones I’ve promised to talk about later). It was almost white with a hint of yellow spots.

Remains to be seen if they are lightfast etc.

Grankogler (rødgran)

Sidste år lavede jeg et kort eksperiment med grankogler, som blev ret skuffende. Men jeg ville alligevel se, om bejdse gjorde en forskel, så jeg bejdsede samme fed og farvede det en gang til!

Sjovt nok er garnet en flot, mørk chokoladebrun når man tager det op, men så snart vandet er trykket ud og man skyller det, så bliver det meget lysere.

For sjov skyld kom jeg så et lille fed silkegarn i bagefter. Det lå først i spanden et par dage, det gav kun en meget lys beige, så jeg varmede det op igen, og det så mere lovende ud. Faktisk så lovende, at jeg puttede ulden i en gang til! Fin brun – som blev til rosa, da de var tørret. Meget sært.

Motley crew

10. September 2013 PiaPå dansk

I’ve been modifying and dyeing a few skeins here and there which I can’t be bothered posting separately.

Lady’s mantle with iron. Since the two hanks I did earlier were so similar, I thought I might as well modify one, I can’t remember why I didn’t do so immediately, but here it is.

Watercolour solution, cold dyed. Tagetes and coreopsis. What I did after I was done testing was pop a hank of yarn into each jar with more iron, and it was so strong that they took up a dark colour instantly! No heat, just left them in there for a bit. Some rinsed out, but they’re still a lot different from my other yarns.

Another batch of reeds, this time only alum mordanted, no CoT, and from the freezer to see if that ruined the plants. Complete succes, so having an abundance of this shade I overdyed some with woad.

Blandet landhandel

Lidt blandede fed, fra toppen er det Løvefod puttet i jernblanding, coreopsis og tagetes akvarelfarve tilsat jern og et forsøg med frosne tagrør og derefter vaid. Helt nederst alle dagens modeller linet op til fotosession.

Just mordant

11. June 2013 PiaPlant Dyeing

For those of you experienced in plant dyeing, this is nothing new, but I thought I’d post an image of mordanted yarns to show the colours you can achieve from that alone. It’s not a complete collection, no iron mordant for instance, just what I happened to have on hand today. 😉 And an unmordanted skein on the right.

I’ll return to my semi-regular schedule probably, when I’m done ruminating over having to put my 3 y.o. cat to sleep yesterday. And I’ve just now realised I don’t really have much in the way of photos…. 🙁

Lilacs 2013

27. May 2013 PiaPå dansk

Two years ago I tried dyeing with lilacs and failed miserably: murky. I eventually suspected that this was due to boiling the flowers, it was at the beginning of my dye career, I didn’t know any better. This is what my 2011 skeins look like today:

Well, this year I had the chance again, this time aiming for 60 degrees which is the lowest my automatic, programmable and very neat hotplate goes. Gift from the SO who just happened to see it in the supermarket and think of me, pretty great, huh? Just what every girl wants for xmas, kitchen utensils! 😉

The copper mordanted yarn is nothing much to behold, in fact it’s like the old results, but the others! Score! The unmordanted skein is actually very faintly green, I’m playing with “toned whites” at the moment…. The yellow is tin mordant.

In the sun:

Syrenfarvning

For to år siden, da jeg lige var begyndt at plantefarve, kogte jeg alle planter og resultatet med syren blev variende nuancer af beige. Jeg har senere tænkt på om det ville lykkes bedre ved en lavere temperatur, og sørme ja, 60 grader blev det til og en ny plante der giver grøn. Med kobberbejse bliver det stadig brunt, med tin citrongult.

Rhubarb leaves as mordant part 1

17. May 2013 PiaPlant Dyeing

Harvested the first rhubarbs, finally, and as a bonus to the lovely crumble pie I boiled the leaves to try using as mordant. The fumes being apparently toxic, I used a hotplate in the barn (clever thing that turns itself off), and forgot about them for a few days before I strained the liquid and added yarn.

Which I subsequently forgot about for another 3-4 days…..So, not only a mordant, but already dyed! I believe the colour, as I learned on some other blog, could be described as “mucky fawn”. (incidentally I have 6 hanks of this)

Well, we’ll see how it does with light and other dyes on top. I have a feeling it’s just going to be mucky with a hint of yellow….

I may or may not try this and not heat it AND pull it out a bit quicker, what do you say? Cotton?

Rhubarb leaf mordant part 2 >>

COLOUR COTTAGE

c/o Pia Juul

Tag: mordant