There are two books in our Knit Picks library (and available online) about natural dyes. The simple act of gathering these plants from the yard, along the roadĪnd hillsides gives me a sense of connection to the women who have comeīefore me to gather and process their own dyes from the wilds around Wool roving dyed with the leaves and flowers from Scotch Broom (Cytisus Scoparius) and then handspun. Unmordanted wool dyed with yellow onion skins. All four skeins were mordanted with alum. It just takes very little actual work, just some time.įrom top to bottom: Wool dyed with Goldenrod (Solidago) overdyed with Indigo (Indigofera Tinctoria), Goldenrod leaves, Goldenrod flowers, and some half-heartedly washed llama dyed with Coreopsis flowers (Coreopsis Tinctoria). Dip the skeins in a water + vinegar bath to set the color, rinse once more and hang to dry! Easy peasy. Remove your skeins and rinse in cool water until the excess pigment is washed out (and the water runs clear). Turn off the heat and let the bath cool for several hours or overnight. Ideally there should be very little to no pigment left in the water. Gently submerge your skein(s) in the dye bath and maintain it at a hot but not boiling temperature for several hours or until your skeins stop absorbing color from the liquid. Strain your new “dye tea”, making sure to remove all the plant matter. Boil the plant until it looks like all of the color that will come out, has. I use equal amounts of dye plants to wool I want to dye, so four ounces wool means I should gather at least 4 ounces dye material. I use alum because it’s fairly safe and won’t dull the colors. The basic idea is to first, mordant your wool. Since then I have tried onions, indigo, coreopsis, goldenrod and scotch broom to dye my handspun. The idea that a simple walk down the street or through a park can take you past a dozen different plants able to color your yarn in a stunning range of shades has piqued my interest since I was gifted a guide to natural dyes two years ago.
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