Monday 17 May 2010

In the Dye-Pot

Dying with Kool-Aid was fun http://abigsmile4.blogspot.com/2009/09/great-day-to-dye.html
but my real goal was natural dying, arming myself with tons of wise words from blogs and forums, I finally gave it a try.

I soaked my wool, then added it to a pot of water with alum & cream of tartar, this is your mordant, helping the dye fix to the wool, gently heating.
The dye was made using Brazilnut wood chips, heated and soaked for a day.
When the wool was ready, I added it into the dye pot and cooked again gently.
Left to cool and then hung out to dry.

Great info on natural dying here -

http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadream/ sadly Simmy, no longer blogs but has left some great advice and gorgeous pictures of her projects.

http://www.sewanee.edu/Chem/Chem&Art/Detail_Pages/Projects_2003/Lawrence/html/Lawrence.html

http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-dye-yarn-with-sun-dye.html this looks like great fun and excellent for involving children.

This was so much easier than I thought and there is really so much help and advice available.

And now, I am knitting it up, into a Pebble Vest for my boy.
Having knitted so many of these for friends new babes, I was delighted to find a sized up pattern on Ravelry.
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/railyuh/pebble-henrys-manly-cobblestone-inspired-baby-vest

I am nocton4 there, please feel free to "friend" me, I'd love to see your projects.





Thanks so much for all the wonderful yoghurt help, what a great community.
I am working my way through the links and will be giving it another go later in the week, will report back.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh wow... that colour is beautiful, you must be really pleased.

arwen_tiw said...

Soo lovely, I am very impressed and can't wait to see it worked up! :)

Jacqui said...

What a fabulous colour! Did you spin that too?

Rose said...

Great colour!

Ariella said...

beautiful color--- very impressive!

Unknown said...

That's a gorgeous colour- what hard work and a sense of acheivement! Can't wait to see the finished product. xo m.

Linda said...

Thank you so much for your dyeing tutorial, what a lovely colour! Thank you for adding my link and for sharing the others:) I am so happy you shared the Ravelry link to your vest you are knitting, I have been looking for one for my little one:)
Happy day to you:)
Warmly
Linda

Pippa said...

Wow, I can imagine that this was hugely satisfying! Totally beautiful and unique colour.

Dawn said...

Lovely colour.
Dyeing is so much fun isn't it, great to see what results you can get with natural ones too.

Kelly said...

Dyeing wool is so good isn't it. It is always interesting to see what colour emerges from that pot. Your colour turned out terrifically! We love, love our vest. Such a beautiful, eye-catching pattern. I am spinning like mad now in anticipation of making space for more wool - nearly shearing time!! And I have sloes, rosehips and hawthornes in the freezer for dyeing with. I collected them in the autumn and they are all waiting there patiently! Dandelion dye simmering away at the moment and those nettles are looking at me just waiting to jump into that pot. Have a sunny weekend, dear friend.