# Natural Dyes



## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

ok, so add a new fun to the list...I have a pot with yarn soaking in blackberry juice (I found a bag in the back of the freezer and wasn't in the mood to make MORE jam...). I simmered it and now it will sit in the pot overnight. Can't wait to see how it will turn out. But mostly this is an experiement to see how many berries I"ll need to pick.

Anyway, found a new to me blog about dyeing
http://tinctory.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-10-01T22:43:00+01:00&max-results=10

Learning that oak galls can be used for a dye and or mordant, so the storm is blowing them out of the trees right now, and I'm collecting them. 

SO anybody dye stuff with this stuff you pick off the ground? I'd love to see your pix! Tommorrow I'll try a skein in some nasty old coffee I found in the back of the freezer(hm, I'm sensing a trend here...). I'll also gather a bucket of oak leaves and let them soak and see how they dye. Then there's the walnut shells in a month, and the lichen to collect that's been blown out of the trees and the stuff that grew in the tree tops that I can collect from the bucked tops...there is just no end to this stuff! 

oh yeah, and mushrooms...I noticed what I call honey mushrooms(yellow with rust tops) are out now, so hmmmm


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Oooohhhhhh. I think she's got it bad!! But I'm not going to save you!! It's a wonderful curiosity to get into!! There was a time that I tried dying all sorts of stuff. I'd use the same dye stuff but using different mordants. Then I'd use different dye stuff with the SAME mordant. And THEN, I'd see how these worked with different fibers!! One of my most fun yarn took a three-ply hand-spun yarn. I think I used a single of wool, a single of alpaca and a single of silk, or something on that order. Pick your own. Anyway, they were all white and a pretty boring white yarn, although the silk had a nice shine about it. But then.... I popped it into the dye pot ..... AND ..... Well, you'll just have to try it yourself and see what happens!!!  tee hee.... 
Ooooohhh, I'm baaaaaaddddddd...
p.s. Wait and see what an over-dye does!!! Don't stop at white. Try dying a light gray!!! tee hee.... giggle..... snort ....


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

haha, overdye--I have a ball of yellow sock yarn with pink and darker pink dots, I'll knit up a shawl, and then pop it in some dye, maybe something brown. You're right the overdye stuff is also narcotic--I also paint watercolors a bit and the way of mixing colors is quite the same

And heather pale pink(hurl) will be fixed  and all that gross minty green...

I have some unevenly dyd(on purpose) cotton that is pale grey, I will knit that up then do it with walnuts(I'll be able to get a load of shells), that will be interesting to see if I can maybe do a lil tie-dye, heh

Oh yeah, my mind just runs with these things 

this is another fave
http://riihivilla.blogspot.com/

http://www.jennydean.co.uk/wordpress/

do I dare say "shibori"?


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

I have some Faukland dyed with yellow onion skins (pale gold), 8 oz dyed with red onion skins (light reddish purple), some from goldenrod flowers (yellow gold) and a gallon jar of walnut dye. I think I posted pictures of some of them in another thread.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

SO my skein came out a medium deep mauve(I hate mauve, heh)--I think I will overdye it with the red onion skins, it can be fixed fine. But I'm real pleased, now I have a better idea of how many berries I need, the natural Galway wool worked great and it was totally fun. Today I'll try some coffee(old bag of Starbux Christmas Bland--bleh), and hack off all my mint and try that. Also came up with a bunch of Lemon Ginger tea I couldn't stand for a pale yellow. When they get dry I'll post a pic. 

Of course now I need to start a book of how things come out I have a book my niece made for me that will work perfect.

The fun part for me with watercolors was always mixing the colors. I have the basic red, yellow blue, plus the basic browns(umber etc), and it was way cool to learn to mix things from the basic colors. I like painting, but right now with family life I dont' have time to sit down and do it so I can concentrate--so the dyeing is easy enough to multi task with and still have fun making colors.

I bet I could get a rusty color from my raw well water, ha!


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

I'm kind of thinking out loud here, my son has my lap top so this way I can keep notes. (I can't print from this computer)

I'm going about this the poor girl way--finding natural mordants such as oak gall, rhubarb leaf, or simmering dye stuff in a cast iron pot.

Cream of tartar I have. I"ll see if alum is at the grocery store, otherwise I'm out of luck. Anyways, I just have an interest in doing this the old fashioned way anyway

Oak gall
http://www.pure-tinctoria.com/PDFdownloads/Mordanting.pdf
(still looking for how to make and use the stuff, apprently you can store the solution for awhile)


Rhubarb leaf mordant
http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/howto/ht01/how_rhubarb_leaf_mordant.htm

great post on using an unseasoned cast iron pot, copper pennies, rusty bits of metal(Yay! I have a pile of bits I've found on my prop--cool to have a use for those!!!)
http://knittingiris.typepad.com/knitting_iris/2007/08/mordant-alterna.html

Nice BIG color chart
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

Anyways, hope this info is helpful. I'll keep looking around. The pot of coffee and the pot of ginger tea dyes are simmering on the woodstove. So far the coffee is a deep malt and the ginger is a pale yellow.

one more thing, you can use big jars in a canning bath to dye
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/wool.shtml


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

There's a lovely little book called "_Hopi Natural Dyes_" I think. Hopi something, anyway. (It's out at the farm, atm, so I can't look to see it's name) There's also a _Hopi Basket Weaving_ that has a lot about gathering natural "stuff" for dyeing, too. 

Might be able to get them thru the library to make notes from them. 

As long as you're gathering stuff...try some of the roots from plants. Quite often they'll give a totally different color than the leaves/flowers. (often BROWN, but sometimes it's orange or deep yellows)

Be careful with the oak gall. It was used for ink throughout medieval times (and before) and from what I've read, is quite acidic. (not to mention toxic). 

I'm thinking juniper berries might be interesting. And since they're all over the front yard right now......


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

THanks Ann!

I found a nice big gallon glass container(with th wire bail/rubber seal thing) and made up the copper penny mixture, can't wait to see the water turn blue and pop the wool in! It's already turning blue.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Sounds like so much fun! I mentioned this thread and my unfruitful search for Black walnuts to my neighbor last week, well she found me about twenty to play with...I have the husks and water in a gallon jar at this very moment. I was going through my medicinal herbs and found some White Oak bark from 2007, so it's going into another jar. I was reading John Lust's book "The Herb Book" and he's got a section on dye plants and Motherwort is mentioned as a plant that doesn't require a mordant, so now I'm looking for info on whether or not it can be used as dried material (my live stuff has gone into dormancy)
I have some sock yarn blanks coming from Knitpicks (I don't much care for KP's lack of communication), I can't wait to get to dyeing...oh and somewhere I have some easter egg dye!


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

That sounds fun MMT! I hope you get some nice colors! I've got five skeins dyed so far, blackberry(which the mauve grew on me ), a nice deep toffee color from coffee(a med dark roast) and then a second skein into the coffee that came out latte, a pale yellow from some ginger tea plus a few oak leaves, and the last one is interesting, a light pearl grey(so far) from pennies.

The pre 1982 pennies(copper, 100) plus 1 part ammonia, 7 parts water made a sky blue water in 2 days, and I dunked a skein of natural colored wool(4 oz) and it sucked up the blue right away. I left it in for a day, then took it out(so it's not sitting in the ammonia). The penny solution is reusable, and as it makes more blue I'll keep dunking the yarn, it should reach a nice pale sky blue. I think the pearl color it is right now is pretty too.

I really like the natural colors, so different from the manufactured yarn. A different feel and spirit to them, and it's fun to learn about the chemistry and really it's like magic!

THis weekend I'll go forage for some lobaria lichen(a lot should have fallen out of the trees with the storm we just had), some witches hair lichen, and I'll get some walnuts/hulls from my sister's place. I'm also curious to see if I can get some color from her smokebush leaves? I also have a bunch of yellow/rust mushrooms


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I read recenty that English walnuts fermented for many months make a lovely brown color...guess the ferment REALLY stinks.

Just think, come Spring we in the PNW can dig young Blackberry shoots for dye...killing two birds with one stone, Dye and Bramble control (okay control is nearly impossible but we gotta try)


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

Walnuts make a wonderful brown color ... no mordant needed. I boiled up about a dozen walnut husks, then let sit for a couple days. Strained off the husks and have it stored in a glass jar for later this winter.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

Right now I have a pot of yellow/rusty mushrooms simmering on the stove, this kind
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2658072&l=ff2225624c&id=616102765

I just gathered a grocery bag of lobaria lichen, and I'll simmer that on the woodstove till Monday, then pop a skein in.

I got half a grocery bag of these russulas
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2680028&l=6004d6ad7f&id=616102765
so I'll simmer those too.

I've been trying to find info for dyeing with mushrooms, and the basic info I can find is boil/simmer the shrooms for 30-1 hr, then strain and add yarn, and at the end add a cup of ammonia(for 4 oz yarn)--so that is my plan. Ineed to buy some mushrrom dyeing books. I have no idea how these will turn out, but the yellow ones are making a nice gold color so far.

I dunked my copper pot(steel lined) in the ammonia/water solution overnight and got some nice blue from that, I will dunk my copper skein again in that. The yarn seems to suck up the blue quickly, I let it sit the first go round for 12 hours, but I dont' think it has to sit that long in the solution. 

Also gathered a quart jar worth of oak galls, I'll dry those. Found lots of turkey tail fungus--so later I'll go back and pick a bunch. Oh yeah and I found the alum at the grocery store, I swear I've never seen it before--it could be they were just out for pickle season. And the Cream of Tartar was on sale for a great price.

Now I need more "blank" yarn, ha. I have three more skeins to dye, then I'll take some pics and knit something up.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

just found a real nice mushroom dyeing page with great pix and cool felted bowls
http://www.mushroomsforcolor.com/SOMA_Camp_2009-MushroomDyes.htm


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

A few lil notes...I swear the blackberry skein is deeping a bit in color.

The yellow/rust mushrooms made a very nice buttery yellow. There are a lot of those shrooms around so I'll pick more and dry them. THe russulas(maroon tops)--I don't think I had nearly enough of them, the water was very pale pink, not worth using.

I found 5 boletes today(? or suillus? the kind the turn indigo when you cut them), boiled them up and they made a pale yellow dye. 

I put the skein into the lobaria lichen dye today, which is a very pretty DEEP cinnimon. I threw in a few scraps of other wool yarns, which they all vary in how much dye they suck up(interesting). I'll leave the skein in overnight. I also threw in an old horseshoe and a few hunks of cast iron(from an old stove maybe?) I found in the woods--see you just never know what you'll use something for, those rusty bits are working for an iron mordant I'm REALLY pleased with this lichen!!!

I have a big jar of smokebush leaves and twigs steeping, which they are making a really pretty pink water. Also got some walnut hulls from my sis and they are in a big jar getting gooey and BLACK. And simmered a pot of rhododendron leaves, the water is deep gold, I'll let that sit and steep a long while.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

ps, the copper penny bath, the skein I've been putting into that (two dunkings now) is a very pretty dove grey. I will get some copper pipe from Lowe's and see if that makes more blue(copper pipe having more coper content). The ammonia(?) or the copper-ishness, make the yarn very soft!

SO far I'm using Galway worsted from Plymouth, 100gm skeins, 15 years old. 

Anybody have a favorite commercial yarn they like to dye? I also have 6 nice big skeins of pale heather beige handspun icelandic wool I'd like to dunk in the lobaria(cinnimony) stuff. any tips for icelandic wool?

I also tried a bit of natural Nashua Creative Focus Worsted(a single, wool alpaca mix) but that didn't hardly suck up any dye--didn't wash nor mordant it. I'm just kinda throwing spaghetti at the wall at this point.

PS, the page I got info for dyeing with rhodies said it really stinks in the simmering, but I think it smells good, like fir or pine? def christmasy


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

wow, this is really cool
http://ecologicalartist.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/reclaiming/
it's a neat blog, but this post shows how to take nails and leaves and make dye prints on a shirt, good grief, something else I can't wait to try!!!


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Excellent! 

now...not to throw cold water on your experiments...but many of the natural dyes are not light fast. They'll pale very quickly in sunlight. Often they'll go to a lovely pastel shade of the former color..but be prepared.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

I finally did it! I dyed some sock yarn with Black Walnut dye...woohoo!
I allowed the husks to ferment for three weeks, dumped them/strained the ferment through an old pillowcase into my BWB canner, now my nifty dye pot, brought to a low boil then simmered for an hour, allowed to cool, pulled the pillowcase out and let it drip for a couple hours, squeezed good and set the dye to simmer again while I wetted/washed the yarn. Added that to the dye and simmered two hours, shut the flame down and let the yarn sit in the dye-bath overnight. 
Let me tell you the dye stunk up the enclosed back porch!!
I'm now rinsing the yarn. I took pictures before rinsing and will take pics after drying and I'll share.
I'm pretty happy with the results considering that I started out with just a few walnuts.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Sorry it took me so long to post the pictures of my Black Walnut dyed yarn, we've had a Kitty emergency that left the computer out of reach. (Kitty Kat tried to poke her Lt. eye out with a sword...long EXPENSIVE story).

The yarns were dyed with just 8 black walnut hulls. The small skein still had a lot of lanolin and the large one came blank from Knitpicks.
The yarn that I used to tie up the skeins is varigated Yellow, Orange, Green, Red and Purple, I love how it got overdyed (I have a cunning plan to overdye all my leftover sock yarns). I've simmered the remaining dye and the Walnuts themselves for more dye fun.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

So you do realize that you now HAVE to tell us about the cat and the sward right?


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

Okay, here's the story about poor Kitty Kat.
My son was rearranging his room, Kitty Kat was checking out one of his swords ( I have yet to meet a Marine who doesn't have several weapons...Guns, Knives, Bows, Swords), he went to move the sword away from her and she jumped up to continue her investigation and her eye came into contact with the point. We don't know how far the sword point went into her eye but liquid gushed a good three inches up the blade, she took off and we tracked her location by the little blood drops. We took her to the Emergency clinic, but the Vet couldn't really tell how much damage was done and told us to take her to our regular vet on monday ($248.00). We got her into our vet and he thinks she'll be okay but doesn't know if she can see out of the eye, she's on some pretty heavy painkillers and anti-B's ($228.00) 
A Cat's Curiosity has cost Kitty Kat one of her Nine Lives.
Here I was worring that she would get injured by the woodstove or she'd get hurt because of her interest in my knitting.

Good thing I'm making gifts, cuz her injury just cleaned out the holiday fund. She's worth it...she's a cute little bugger...~lol~...


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Oh ouch! Poor Kitty Kat  I have a cat that seems prone to eye stuff like that. One winter day he came into the house and I didn't pay too much attention to him. Later when I was sitting at the computer he came to rub on my leg. I reached down to pat him and looked at the same time and Ooooooo! He had a big stick sticking out of his eye. He was acting perfectly normal, I'm thinking OMG! I called my son to hold him while I looked. As it turned out the stick was between his upper eyelid and his eyeball. I grabbed the stick and pulled it out and they cat didn't even flinch. Wow, I was so shocked. I watched him for several day and he was fine. The just this year he was in the car for some reason, we were taking him home from the vet I think. He was under my seat and somehow cut his eye really badly. It looked like he caught the outer corner on something and it ripped it. This cat is really strange and VERY shy. I couldn't get him out from under the seat. When we got him I just had to leave the car door open and let him go on his own. He hid outside for days and when he finally came into the house his eye was swollen, I kept an eye on it and it healed just fine. To thid day he is a healthy whole cat.

I hope your Kitty Kat will be alright Marinemomtatt. Keep us posted, please. How's your son dealing with it?


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## weever (Oct 1, 2006)

This thread needs a warning for the squeamish.


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## marinemomtatt (Oct 8, 2006)

My big tough Marine cried because he felt so bad. He's always had a big heart for our animal companions. Joe has a Veteran Marine uncle who used to be an avid hunter until his stint in the Corps, hasn't hunted since. (he's got a big heart too)

I have another batch of yarn in the dye, one homespun and the other a blank Knitpicks.


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

marinemomtatt said:


> My big tough Marine cried because he felt so bad. He's always had a big heart for our animal companions.


Some of the biggest and toughest Marines I know also have the biggest hearts and are the biggest teddy bears when it comes to animals and small children. 

Hope Kitty heals completely.


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