| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
joankyles
Warming Up
50 Posts |
 Posted - 05/15/2008 : 07:37:12 AM
|
| Do any of you natural dye your own wool, I am thinking of using plant dyes for some of my wool but can't seem to be getting the dye into the wool, Where am I going wrong? Ta Joan |
|
|
Sharyn
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
418 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2008 : 07:39:28 AM
|
Hi Ta Joan,
I just discovered a natural dyeing group on Ravelry - lots of great information and lots of people willing to answer questions. The group name is Plants to Dye For.
Sharyn |
 |
|
|
eepster
Seriously Hooked
USA
704 Posts |
|
|
KathyR
Permanent Resident
New Zealand
2969 Posts |
Posted - 05/15/2008 : 3:58:44 PM
|
Most dyes from plant material will need a mordant (such as alum) to fix the colour. Search online for more information or go to your library for books containing this info. Most juices are considered to be stains rather than dyes and will probably fade over time with washing and exposure to sunlight.
KathyR
If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.
My Blog
http://www.flickr.com/groups/kr_members/ (Roselea Fibres) |
|
|
|
Chemcats
Permanent Resident
3337 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2008 : 05:11:05 AM
|
Eepster! That roving was Out Of This World! I want to roll around in it and rub my face with it. yum, yum, yum!
I read some place that if you change the pH with baking soda the resulting color will be a bit more red... Have you tried that? Is that garbage info?
Meribeth |
|
|
|
eepster
Seriously Hooked
USA
704 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2008 : 12:32:11 PM
|
quote:
Originally posted by Chemcats
I read some place that if you change the pH with baking soda the resulting color will be a bit more red... Have you tried that? Is that garbage info?
It wouldn't surprise me, but wouldn't the alkalinity cause the wool to become brittle?
{o,o}
./)_)
.." "
Jen
http://www.buddhabellyart.com/
http://www.cafepress.com/buddhabellyart |
|
|
|
Chemcats
Permanent Resident
3337 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 03:46:48 AM
|
As I remember, they used sodium bicarb, so that would be a weak caustic. Darn! I am going to have to google (and google, and google) to find that info.
Meribeth |
|
|
|
Kade1301
Permanent Resident
France
1429 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 08:39:09 AM
|
After our spinning guild's weekend meeting on natural dyeing I decided that it was not for me: As KathyR said, generally you need to mordant the wool (which might be the reason why you can't get any dye into the wool), then you need the right dye plants (and most of the interesting colours - blue, red (with the exception of madder) - come from tropical plants. With local plants we only got camoufalage colours: yellow, light greens, (gold) brown) and finally you need lots of experience and good record-keeping to be reasonably sure of your results. I felt natural dyeing is an art in its own right, and I simply prefer spinning. So I work with naturally coloured fibre or chemical dyes. If you want to get serious about natural dyeing, I think Jenny Dean's book "Wild Color" is pretty good.
Happy dyeing! Klara
http://www.lahottee.info |
|
|
|
beedee
Seriously Hooked
USA
705 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2008 : 11:16:07 PM
|
Cochineal can be particularly satisfying and give beautiful shades of rose/red depending on the mordant, alum being the most common. Madder gives a more "rusty" red. One can get some interesting color variations if one uses an old cast iron pot or kettle to simmer various colors.
My funniest and most fun dyebath was from prickly pear fruit juice. If I had washed the fleece (churro) before submerging it into the undiluted juice to ferment for about a week, I would have gotten a deep magenta-purple, and possibly resistent to sun-fading. As it was, I got a dark pink-magenta. I had spun the yarn "in-the-grease" and was too impatient to pre-wash it before fermenting it in the juice. I also regretted not reserving some of the juice -- it had the most tempting aroma -- notwithstanding an occasional whiff of "lanolin"!
How did I process the prickly-pear fruit? It was a prickly process. Really, no sweat. I picked the fruit with tongs. I rolled the fruit, still using the tongs, in a bed of sand and grit (chicken grit). I then mashed them with a hand potato masher and ran the juice through a sieve. That was it! |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
| Knitter's Review Forums |
© 2001-2013 Knitter's Review |
|
|
|
|
Natural Dyeing Anyone
