Plant overdye fail

I dyed some newly scoured Dorset fleece with a plant that I had good success with last year, Celandine. I have it in my garden where it’s threatening to take over an entire flowerbed.

Chelidonium majus - Greater Celandine - Svaleurt

The outcome was not as expected though, the yellow was muted and pale, no amount of modifier changed it very much. Iron and copper turned it slightly greenish, but no different from each other, pot ash looked the same as before. This does happen with some plants, whereas others change dramatically. I was pretty sure I did modify yarn colours dyed with this plant last year, so what went wrong?

  • The wool type may not take dye well.
  • I mordanted in the dyebath, not before as I usually do.
  • Temps not high enough?
  • Or maybe the wool was still greasy.
  • Could be too early in the season too, plants change?

In any case, drumcarding this to get a heathered yarn is out, so I might as well play. Enter new plant, new dyebath. The wool ought to be already mordanted, let’s see if it comes out different shades! If it works, I also want to put some of it into an indigo vat.

Equisetum arvense, Common Horsetail. Gave me a surprisingly nice yellow last year. Not so this year I’d say, or rather, the iron and copper in some of the fiber probably resulted in this murky disaster….

So now I have half and half of the fibers shown above, not much to blend, so the question is what to do next. I think I might just play around with how to make a poll and maybe in a couple of years I’ll even get some votes on it! 😉 A comment below is also very much appreciated.

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[polldaddy poll=6328099]

På dansk

Jeg havde fået to gratis hamme af Dorset får som jo ikke er verdens blødeste uld, ej heller var de klippet professionelt og havde levet et godt frit liv med masser af plantedele i håret. 😉 Så jeg har tænkt mig at bruge det som testuld til plantefarvningseksperimenter, og første test blev svaleurt, som jeg har installeret i min have.

Jeg syntes farven blev god på garn sidste år, men denne gang blev det lidt fesent. Jeg tænker det både kan være uldtypen som tager dårligt imod, at der stadig var lanolin i, at temperaturen ikke kom højt nok op eller måske forskellen lå i at jeg kom alun direkte i farvebadet frem for at bejse ulden først som jeg plejer at gøre med garn. Kobber og jern gav en lidt grønlig nuance, men wow-effekten udeblev.

Så jeg besluttede mig for at teste gen- eller overfarvning og valgte Agerpadderok som også gav mig en rigtig fin gul sidste år. Men men, så blev det da rigtig mudret!

Meningen havde været at skaffe en kartemaskine og lave nogen halvmixede batts af de forskellige gule og grønne nuancer, men det ser lidt for kedeligt ud indtil videre. Måske jeg skal putte noget af det i indigo eller kraprodsbad? Eller en portion mere, jeg har et par kg eller 3.

Læg gerne en kommentar til, hvad DU synes jeg skal gøre eller deltag i afstemningen ovenfor!