pH is very important when using natural dyes, and people have always used available resources to control pH. The easily available bases in the past – and even the deep past – are urine and wood ash. Urine is pH neutral when fresh, but forms ammonia when stored, causing the pH to rise. There is […]
Safflower is a complex dye plant. It contains red and yellow dyes, and they bind to different fibers. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is one the oldest domesticated plansts. It arose in present-day Syria more than 5000 years ago from a cross between 2 or 3 wild species from the genus Carthamus (this is known from studies […]
Recently, I have wondered how much it is really necessary to heat wool when you mordant it. To the usual 80-90C? Or would 60C be enough? (Yes I wondered about that because I ruined some yarn, and I think I overheated it!) So I turned to the knowledgeable people on Ravelry’s natural dyeing forum for […]
Once your eye adapts to spotting lichens, there is one in particular that beckons to you from just about everywhere – bright yellow Xanthoria parietina, growing on stones, fences, and branches. It’s even in my holiday snapshots from last year, taken at Dybbøl, where the Germans beat the Danish army back to the stone age […]
My recent attempt at dyeing with fermented avocado pits was only partially successful – I got three nice pink-ish test skeins out of it (on the left, dry) but two skeins of sock yarn came out a drab beige (still in the pot, so wet, which makes the color look nicer than it is) So […]
I’ve experimented with this salvage dye in the past, but not with much luck. Now, having tried many more dyestuffs, I’m returning to it. The idea that you can get good color out of something you would have otherwise just thrown out is appealing and worth pursuing, especially in winter, where dyestuffs are scarcer. I’ve […]
I lived in Grenoble for 2 years, and everybody there is always talking about walnuts. The region is famous for its walnuts – noix de Grenoble. But I have to admit that I didn’t actually see any nuts growing, nor did I eat very many of them while I lived there… So one day here […]
Although I’ve had unsuccessful attempts in the past at growing dye plants myself, I’m determined to try it again this year. But it’s always a good idea with a plan B, and that’s my sister. Last year, she grew Coreopsis in her garden, and since she is not a dyer herself, she decided to give […]
I’m in hat knitting mode right now! As soon as this hat was finished, I had the next one on the needles. The pattern, a Danish one called “hue 1” (that just means hat 1, the book has more than one hat) really makes my brain go berserk with color scheme after color scheme. I’ve […]
I have long been fascinated with the colors that one can achieve using the dyes that nature provides. There is an endless experimentation that can be tried, and to chronicle my many experiments, I’ve decided to start writing about it here. That will also allow myself to keep track! Over the summer and fall of […]
