Mossy Cottage Knits

But...But...But...I Don't Really KNOW Anything!

I suppose this technically should go under the "Dyeing Dyegest" section but since it's so astonishing, I think it qualifies for the Gratuitous Story of the Day. I've been invited to do a natural dyeing presentation! Clueless, only-been-dyeing-for-a-week moi!

The story: Wednesday night I went to my monthly Guild meeting and, during "show and tell," trotted out the balls of yarn I've dyed. Afterwards, a member of the guild invited me to do a short presentation about natural dyeing to some science teachers at a local high school! I am, as the British would say, completed gobsmacked. And very flattered. And very excited. Fortunately, I have oodles of experience doing training and presentations, so that leaves me free to just enjoy the process of putting together and conducting the presentation. Dear K has, of course, jumped right into the fray and said she will help me print large copies of some photos to use, since she has all that fancy foo-foo Mac equipment and a high-end color printer. This is going to be so much fun!

Knitting Knews
Nobody move. Nobody speak. Nobody breathe. I've started sewing together the Oat Couture sweater... News at 11.

Dyeing Dyegest: Success! (I Think...)
Reader Janet has expressed particular interest in the results of my experiments in dyeing with alder cones, so I dedicate today's entry specifically to her! Hi, Janet, and thank you for reading the blog!

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No doubt about it, gathering flowers for dyeing is a slow process, especially if you're determined to keep the garden looking splendorific while you do it. Every few days I gather a few more slightly wilted flowerheads and stash them away in the freezer but, since the minimum amount I need for dyeing a 1/2-ounce skein is two cups of flower material, it will be a while before the dye garden yields what I need. Currently, we are having the most success with gathering the prolific marigolds.

While we wait for the flowers to grudgingly surrender their blossoms, I thought it would be a lark to see what I could do with the alder cones I gathered about two months ago. The dyeing reference books say you can dye with a combination of alder cones, leaves, and bark but I had only cones since I was clueless the day I gathered them. Although all the books said you should soak the cones and then simmer them to make the dyebath, one book said sometimes soaking them was enough to bring out the dye color so, being impatient, I decided to go that route, just soaking them for a couple of nights, straining them, and going straight to the dye process.

As a reminder, here are the cones soon after I picked them:

Here are the cones in the bowl (2 cups of cones to two cups of warm water). This is five minutes after I put everything together. Notice that the color has already started to leach out.

Here is the dyebath being strained through cheesecloth and a sieve. Pretty gross, non? And you have to wonder why I chose to wear a white t-shirt while I was doing this...

A small bowl of the finished alder dye.

The finished alder dye in a mason jar.

On Monday's post, I'll explain and show pictures of the dyeing process and the dyed yarn.

Posted by Ryan at June 20, 2003 02:22 PM