Tag: wool

Larch needles

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Having managed to pick only a few handfuls of dead needles (not easy to get off tree, then frost happens and they’re all on the ground), I decided to just toss them in a pot rather than save. Put in some testknit of my usual plant dye yarn and see what happens for future reference.

larch1

There’s all sorts of things I could have tested, iron, mordants etc, but I don’t think I have enough dye. One might be able to scavenge from the ground in the forest where they grow large and many.

I used rain water, pH 6. After boiling the needles, pH 6.5? I wish I had some way of preserving that water barrel over winter, but the last one is proof that I can’t:

larch2

In the back you see part of the original old farm house on this property, from the 1860’s, now wood shed.

Some colour seems to be available, one could test quantity, pH values, mordants, modifiers. Could be a nice dulce span of colours, doesn’t always have to be pow! Different from any of my previous results of plant dyeing at least.

larch3

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Lærk 1

Et lille hurtigt farveeksperiment med visne lærketræsnåle, havde kun et par håndfulde som jeg kogte i pH neutralt regnvand.

Der er da noget farve at hente, måske mere hvis man har flere nåle, bruger bejse, jern og andet til en samling afdæmpede naturtoner? Anderledes end noget jeg har fået før i hvert fald.

Dye day

PiaAcid Dyeing

I decided to clean out my dye shelf and start afresh, running out of 1% “clean” colours and lots of little leftovers cluttering the place that I no longer remember the formula for.

So I dug out my bin of Suffolk fleece and just kept throwing chunks and dyes into a couple of pots of vinegar water, keeping them hot all the while.

And then I got all excited, mixed up a new batch of each dye and began mixing again to dye the rest of the fleece. For some reason all my different reds turned out a pretty similar orange, but that can be fixed….

This means I’m done “spot” dyeing my Suffolk fleece, apart from the batch I’m going to flick and spin as is or comb on my superfines.

I’d love to process the rest on a drumcarder however, because it’s not in any kind of lock formation, so I’m going to leave it for a bit to see if I can get a hold of one. Possibly spend idle hours (a concept I once read about) picking and flicking so the VM is gone.

It’s been separated into colour groups, each one will be a yarn I think.

Recently I also dyed some more Shetland for my sweater project

And a couple of sock yarns that are supposed to look like worn denim.

Elderberry results 2

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Washed and dried and staying pretty much the same colour! So far so good… All that remains is a light test.

salt – alkaline – acid – before wash
In the sun after wash in tap water with shampoo

The jar of fleece turned blue, then green after some days, but the fleece then virtually lost all colour when drained. Slight greenish grey left. Whether it’s due to temp, no mordant or just the Dorset that doesn’t take well remains a mystery as usual. But I’m thinking I could have gotten green if I’d used yarn.

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Hyldebærfarvning 2

Det ser ud som om garnet holder farven, ogsÃ¥ efter vask! SÃ¥ mangler blot en lystest….

Elderberry results 1

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I nearly forgot about these – time to take a look after 10 days. Looks pretty good! Now to dry and cure for about a week, then rinse in rain water.

I then mixed the leftover juice and added some of the unmordanted Dorset fleece, tweaking to a pH of 8. Leaving for a week or more and take it out when I rinse the others for a new report. The suspense is killing me, how about you? Right now it looks blue….

salt – alkaline – acid

Tempted to try a tin mordant if these turn out colourfast. And I’ve read about green. I wonder which pH is needed for that? Like, 13? My strips only go to 11.

It’s been cool weather, not above 20 C, more like 15, so not exactly what I’d call solar dyeing.

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Hyldebærfarvning

Jeg havde næsten glemt mine garnglas på bryggershylden, men nu var det tid til at åbne efter 10 dage. Jeg lader dem tørre noget tid inden jeg skyller, for at lade farven sidde i så længe som muligt. Jeg har læst et sted at bærfarver holder bedre hvis de er koldfarvet i forhold til simret, så det måtte jeg alligevel prøve, selvom jeg egentlig har opgivet frugt og grønt.

Den resterende saft har jeg blandet og puttet i et nyt glas med ubejset dorset uld. Fortsættelse følger!

Quezovercoatl

PiaAcid Dyeing

Project winter cape from beginning to end with pics. I made it last year, but never finished it in time to actually wear it. My coat is great, but when it’s really, really cold, I need something extra, and wearing a ton of sweaters underneath isn’t always practical.

Yes, yes, I really suck at titles, so re-reading Eric by Terry Pratchett recently set this one off. Anyway, “a wooly something to wear over my not terribly thick overcoat in winter” just doesn’t make the cut either. So there.

It’s hand dyed and handspun Gotland fiber and improvised garter stitch pattern with a crochet edge.