Natural Dyeing Summer 2015
by Elaine on Sep.05, 2015, under Blog Posts
The past two weeks have been spent dyeing with natural dyes yellows and reds. It has been a lovely time using my crock pot and a pound of fine 2/20’s worsted wool purchased the previous summer at Convergence in Rhode Island. I divided the cone of yarn into 40 small skeins which some mordanted with just alum and others with alum and cream of tartar. I plan to use this yarn with a heavier yarn for weaving my tapestries. I will wait for a few weeks and then over dye some of the yellows to get more greens and some of the cochineals to get purples.
The dyes used from left to right: Coreopsis from Mexico; Achiote from Mexico; Osage Orange from Canada; Gardenia Pods from Canada; Marigolds from Mexico; and iron used on Osage Orange skein.
The reds from left to right: Cochineal from Mexico and Madder from Canada.