I've become obsessed with dyeing 1 & 2ply bought wool yarns, as i don't farm sheep or spin, (yet!). (The ply rating is an australian term, equivalent to lace weight and cobweb elsewhere, which i find too vague).
The wool and silk dye beautifully, but its all quite variable depending on the type of wool fibre, how it has been prepared, when the dye material is collected and how long the dyeing process is. This means that pretty much every batch is different to some degree.
Fascinating.
Endless fun.
Bucket chemistry.
I do label everything, but otherwise it's all slapdash at this stage because it's fun that way.
I have been trying to make good photos that show the true colours, but so far it doesn't work with the point-and-shoot very well. These photos are the best i've come up with.
Ist mistletoe experiment
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| Mistletoe, dry fallen leaves collected in autumn |
The mistletoe is common alongside the road from Barraba to Bingara in NSW. Barraba is where Merlene has her Fibre Shop (see the earlier posts about that). At this stage in the experiments I'm only using an alum mordant, sometimes with cream of tartar. I'm also using rainwater from the parents' concrete tank, which might be neutral or ever so slightly alkaline, and doing the simmering in stainless steel pots. The mistletoe leaves were a dark red/brown like the colour of the wool, so this one worked very well! It was the 3rd simmer for this hank, with the pot topped up with some 'fresh' leaves each time. Morris & Son Empire 2ply, 100% merino.
2nd mistletoe experiment
I then collected more mostly fresh leaves in late winter/early spring. The leaves looked lovely - bright red in the sunshine, so i was very hopeful.......into the pot they went, but i got some different results!
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| Mistletoe, mostly fresh early spring leaves |
Firstly note the change of colour in the bottom hank compared to the image above of the same. That's the problem with the colour reproduction. i think the real colour is actually somewhere between the two.
- the top hank is alum + cream of tartar, Beautiful Silks 1 ply merino, 1 simmer
- the middle hank is alum + C of T, Dairing 2ply merino, 2nd simmer
- bottom hank is the one from the first experiment to show the relative differences
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| Mistletoe samples showing the range of colours |
- the one on the far left is Icelandic einband and the colour is a very clear bright yellow. it was almost fluro when it came out of the pot! i'll get more of this on my next trip, even though it is probably closer to our 4ply weight i love it for its texture.
Experiments with prunus leaves
The dark purple flowering plum is quite popular as a street tree in various parts of sydney. I've collected batches from 3 differnt places during the last spring season and so far and they all give different results...... sadly only a few reasonably representative photos so far. The colours range from the almost grey- prussian blue below, through the lighter grey-mauve to delicious bluey-greens that i haven't been able to capture yet in the photos.i'll keep trying.
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| Prunus, purple leaves collected in spring |
- The outside hank is Empire 2ply with leaves from the trees in Sun Valley in the Blue Mountains were my sister lives
- the centre hank is the remainder of the einband in the same pot
- both with alum & C o T.
Other plants
I have lots of purple-leaved plants in my garden and have started using alternathera, ipomea, purple tradescantia and in September i collected indigofera australis from Mum's new native plantings.I'll try the recipe that can be found in the Turkey Red Journal.
i've also got some stunning very strong rusty oranges from a grey-leafed ironbark. The pale bluey-grey-green leaves give a really outstanding colour and a lovely smell to the wool. When boiling the leaves the eucalyptus smell goes through the whole house. yummy.
Other plants used include grevillea robusta flowers (gave a yellow), illawarra flametree flowers (vibrant red flowers gave only a very soft buttery colour). Purple onion skins gave a greeny colour.
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