A little bit of Weld

Oh well, at least some grew. I have been so late harvesting what I had in the garden I almost forgot it was there. I just caught it in time for the first frost. I havent harvested the woad though, I have been just too busy. Anyway, I dont know whether the late harvest affected the colour but it was not ‘the yellow by which all other yellows are measured’ as so often quoted for weld. As I am so sick of yellow and brown I added some copper modifier with more pleasing results. If I see any more yellow or brown I shall scream. I have been really depressed recently, but this lime green really cheered me up. Its amazing the effect it had.Which just goes to show what matters in life! This was some wool for a long haired sheep, spun on a spindle as being inexperienced I was struggling with the wheel.

100% weld with copper assistant, alum mordant

Water Lily root

water lily root, no mordant, periodic warm water

This unpromising colour is a result of water lily root, no mordant. I was somewhat disappointed that I couldnt get a deeper colour, however when I looked it up water lily root with no mordant produces a pale beige! It can be significantly darker with copper and iron, apparently.  I used hot water and soaked it four twenty four hours, periodically raising the temperature, before getting fed up! It does have shades of pink in it, being something of a minky colour. No comments about the spinning please!

cold natural dye update

I left the wool in a cold water bath for just over a week. The result was much paler than the previous batch. I think it you want to get any depth you would have to leave it some considerable time and use it as a first run, in my opinion.

Cold water natural Dyeing

Well, in my attempt to be even greener and cheaper I have now started experimenting with leaving the yarn to dye in cold water. I read somewhere that if you have a cold water bath it just takes a lot longer. I will post up the results, but am expecting it to take a week.

Natural dyeing with eucalyptus bark.

My spinning carries on in the background. I have bought a wheel and keep practising. I have finally reached the stage where I can start to dye my wool. Here is some I dyed with  dried eucalyptus bark from a tree my neighbour was felling a couple of years ago. I mordanted it with alum and am still extracting dye by cold soaking from the same bark. I am quite pleased with the colour, I may try experimenting with other mordants but my main problem at the moment is that I only have an aluminium  pan. I have found a site which tells you how to cold dye so I suppose I could have a go with that in a plastic bucket.

Dried eucalyptus bark, alum mordant