Colour magic

[vaneramos]

The yarn we dyed this weekend is so exciting I could hardly decide which photo to post here. We experimented with a variety of different fibres: 100 per cent wool, superwash wool and nylon, wool and silk, alpaca and silk, and 100 per cent alpaca. Danny also threw in some small all-silk samples.

Then there were the dyes. Brazilwood provides a dark lavender colour when treated with a basic post-mordant (baking soda), or peachy-coral with an acid (alum and cream of tartar). Padauk, another tropical wood, gives a colour I call vermillion, though the wood particles had been used once before so we got a lighter peach colour. Saxon blue is a derivative of indigo, yielding a deep sea-blue.

Most of these fibres will be suitable for weaving, in fact some will probably be used for my first project. Louisa has offered to teach me the basics.

The pure wool is too bulky, more appropriate for knitting. It was left over from a dyeing weekend at the cottage in September 2006. I decided to show the wool here, because it had gone into almost all the dye pots, giving a nice comparison of the colours (the other photos are in the dye set on Flickr. The only exception is third from the left—the fibre in that dye lot was to be post-mordanted with baking soda, so we didn't want to contaminate the dye with wool that had received an acidic pre-mordant—the superwash wool and nylon is shown in that case.

I love colour. This is pure magic. The dyes are described from left to right, with the post-mordant in brackets.

1. saxon blue (alum, cr. of tartar)
2. saxon blue, second bath (alum, cr. of tartar)
3. brazilwood (baking soda)
4. brazilwood (alum, cr. of tartar)
5. padauk (alum, cr. of tartar)
6. goldenrod flowers (none)
7. goldenrod flowers, second bath (none)
8. beech leaves (none)

Comments

[e-musings.livejournal.com]

I am in yarn lust! Sooo pretty!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Yowsa!

[djjo.livejournal.com]

Those look really great together!

One small fix to your description. Brazilwood gives the lavender in baking soda bath, and the coral peachy coral in the alum / cream of tartar.

You got it right in the list of yarns.

Re: Yowsa!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks, got it!

I got the idea to photograph all the wools together this morning. Our cottage local yellows stand up pretty nicely to the exotic dyes.

Re: Yowsa!

[djjo.livejournal.com]

>>> Our cottage local yellows stand up pretty nicely to the exotic dyes.

That they do! A lot of natural dyed yarns work well with each other. They don't tend to fight amongst each other as much as synthetic dyes do.

Re: Yowsa!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

They don't tend to fight amongst each other as much as synthetic dyes do.

That's evident from these colours. This morning I was reading about how the pigments are more complex than synthetics, so I suppose that's why they blend better.

[bixie.livejournal.com]

oh wow the colors are really great! what fun to mix and create all that. :>

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's lots of fun, like making magic.

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

I'm so jealous - I'd love to do some fiber dyeing, but just don't have the room or the energy.

Crazy(and thinking wistful thoughts of mailing to you some undyed homespun she does from time to time - linen? Cotton? Silk? Wool? Blends?? *best effort at looking winsome)Soph

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I would consider that. We're planning to do some more dyeing over the July 4-7 weekend, but that's probably too soon for you to send anything. Wool and silk are probably the safest bets. The wool-silk skein we dyed with brazilwood is actually my favourite out of the whole lot, second from the top here:



Cotton has to be treated differently (I don't know about linen, but it's probably similar). Danny would know more about that. I haven't taken much interest in cotton so far, but perhaps once I start weaving I'll want to get into plant fibres.

[bearfinch.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that very few people now would know anything about dyes, mordants and such. And yet it is one of the practices that lead to the development of modern chemistry.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

If Danny's reports on his leisure activities are any indication, a large number of craftspeople are preserving this knowledge and practice. I think a fair proportion of spinners and weavers experiment with dyeing their own fibre sooner or later. My daughter has even learned to use acid dyes as part of her co-op placement! The use of natural dyes is probably not as widespread, because most of them require processing large volumes of raw material, so they're not economically viable. A few weeks ago Danny brought over a documentary about people who are preserving the traditional indigo industry; very interesting!