And if there’s anything scarier than doing a natural dyeing pot, it’s doing it for the second time. Because things can go differently. And this second pot of indigo decided to change whatever could be changed. The indigo didn’t dissolve as nicely, the bloom took longer in forming, and the actual vat decided to get oxygen in it a couple times. I tell you. It was crazy.

Well, it still behaved fairly well. Although it seemed a lot stronger than I’d planned. I wound up with a nice medium chunk of fleece.

And then I pushed the vat to see how dark I could actually get. This wool was . . . I think six or seven dunks. I could have gone longer, but I was worn out. You wouldn’t think standing in the kitchen could get so old after awhile.

Anyway, I also over-dyed some leftover yarn from my raspberry sweater. This yarn was originally mordanted with alum and dyed with cochineal. You can see its color and the color of a darker, non-mordanted, vinegar-enhanced cochineal skein in this picture. Here they are pre-soaking.

I dunked them into the indigo and got these lovely purples. Over-dyeing is quite fun! I’d love to try for some greens once I get a chance to dye some things with my goldenrod. (Which I wish I’d bought more of.) The picture shows them a bit darker then they actually are.

Then I also did a little sample of merino roving to take to a friend so she could see the range of colors. Dip-dyeing is quite easy in the indigo vat because you only have to hold the fiber up for a minute at a time.

My friend did come and bring her drum carder, and I have some nice pictures of the batts we made. I’ll be getting those up pretty soon.

And, for MaidenYarn news, my blog is now moved to maidenyarn.com. (I have my own domain!) If you type in the old address it will still redirect to the new location.

I’m also getting another Beginner Series ready to go. This one will focus on fleece!

In the pot:

Goldenrod and Hydrangea after the simmering: (Hydrangea in the background)

The red flowers made this:

After being simmered to within an inch of their lives, the red flowers didn’t have much pigment or giddyup left. Kind of pathetic, actually. Oh, and I found the cheesecloth works great for straining out dyestuffs. Don’t try coffee filters unless you want to stand there forever.

Once the dye had been properly extracted from the dye stuffs, in went the alum and cream of tartar. I stirred it well, then stuffed in the wool, pre-soaked of course. Back onto the stove went the whole caboodle, and I had to distract myself for another half hour. Twiddle. Twiddle. Twiddle.

Here are the results.

Not very stunning, are they? Clockwise from the top left they are hydrangea (basically no color shift), first batch of goldenrod (some goldenish colored tips), the one dyed with red flowers is kind of hanging onto the bottom the goldenrod fleece. (You can barely tell in the photo, but it turned a pale rust in spots.) And a hopeful second batch of goldenrod (pale yellow in a few places). Not very exciting. Nor encouraging after an afternoon of work. Ah well. I got some experience out of it.

On reflecting, I think the main thing I did wrong was put the alum and cream of tartar in with the dye before adding the fiber. Some people can make this work, but others have trouble with the mordant adhering to the dye stuff and not the fiber, which gives you lovely colored water and untouched wool. From now on, I premordant. End of discussion. I also think I cooked the red too long.

Well, I’m battered but not crushed. I’ll be doing more in the future. And hopefully the near future.

Needless to say I promptly forgot about wool washing (although I did get the next batch in the degreaser) and switched to natural dyeing. You can imagine my excitement. A whole new world of discovery opened up! In two minutes flat I was picturing myself discovering an as yet untried dye stuff and bursting on the natural dyeing scene on Ravelry with an amazing revelation. My blog stats would soar, I’d walk on air for days . . . and I was getting carried away. I reeled myself back in and did the obvious. I picked the flowers.

I only had five flower heads to work with, not enough for a whole pot of dye, so I decided to put a glass jar in a larger pot of hot water and heat the dye that way. But one jar doesn’t take up the whole pot. I had room for two more jars. That meant that I got to come up with two other things to try! The goldenrod was a no-brainer, but I got stuck for the third. Then I thought about trying out hydrangea leaves and smashed one up to see what it did. It left nice yellow green stains on a paper towel so I picked about an ounce of leaves and trundled them inside.

I wound up leaving the flower heads in cold water to see if that affected the color any (and to float out any bugs that were hiding.) This didn’t seem to help color-wise, but I did get rid of some little white bug that could float.

I put my new mortar and pestle to use and smashed up the two fresh dyestuffs. Oh, and by the way, it worked superbly. I had to be very careful not to go on a “things to crush up” rampage. It was so much fun! But anyway, back to the dyeing.

The red flowers affected the water at once. As did the goldenrod. Here’s what it looked like.

The recipe I have calls for simmering the dyestuffs for 45 minutes to an hour. I obeyed, trying to distract myself so I wouldn’t hover over the pot…

(to be continued)

After about twenty minutes (although we found out that we had come a half hour late) the guild president called the meeting to order and they did some guild housekeeping stuff. (Announcements and so on.) But the wheels didn’t stop spinning! If anything this guild is a great time to catch up on spinning projects. Some of the ladies spun the entire time.

Once the announcements were over they did Show and Tell, which was enjoyable. Next came a short break, and they did a little raffle thing called “Surprise You.” You can buy raffle tickets at fifty cents apiece (I believe the money goes to the guild) and use them to try to win various things they had set out. This time there was some really good stuff, like an ounce of a Merino/Tencel mix, and a pound of organic cotton, fresh tomatoes (yes, food is allowed for this), and some knitting books. You put the ticket into the cups set next to whatever you want to try to win, and they draw for it after the break. I thought it was a rather nice idea. Whoever wins something is supposed to bring something for the next raffle. Oh, and there was also a lady there who was selling hand-dyed roving. I had to be very strict with myself or I would have bought some. I have to remember to save for the SAFF!

After the break a lady gave a little talk about getting started with natural dyes. It wasn’t very in-depth, nor was it a step-by-step how-to guide, but it helped me look at natural dyeing in a new way. The best thing I learned? That you don’t have to pay twenty dollars to order some exotic beetles that will dye a half pound of fiber red. You can use things that grow around you. Acorns will give you a yellow, black walnuts will give you a cinnamony color, or a really dark brown (no kidding!), pokeberries will give you a pretty fuschia, and cranberries will give you a nice pink. The lady also gave us a printed sheet of instructions with the step-by-step instructions on it, and an easy way to do an indigo pot.

A couple tips: If you’re using fresh berries or leaves, you will need equal poundage between the dye stuff and the fiber. If you want to dye a pound of wool, you need a pound of berries or leaves.

If you’re using dried dyestuffs, you need very little. I don’t know what the exact ratios are, but this whole process is not very exact!

And then this was the fun part. She had brought seven or eight different lengths of roving each dyed in a different natural dye color, and she said we could all take three-inch lengths off of them! I spun mine up into a rainbow sort of yarn, and here it is. I spun the singles top-whorl, then plied them on a bottom whorl.

Naturally Dyed Yarn

I can’t remember all the dyestuffs she used, but I do remember—An orangey-red with Brazilwood, some nice yellows and golds with Goldenrod, Sassafrass, Chili Powder, and Mullein, a green with . . . I think it was nettles and spinach. I’m not sure. A great Indigo blue, some pink Cranberry, and something purple. I’m not sure what.

I got a little confused after the dust cleared around the free fiber. Apparently the talk was over and the guild meeting had ended. Some people left, some stayed and spun, but nobody stood up and said, “Here’s what we’re going to do now.” It was only four-fifteen, and I’d thought the meeting went until five. Anyway, the lady sitting next to my sister and me showed me how to spin from the fold.

I believe the guild costs twenty-five dollars a year to be a member, and I think I shall join. It was a very enjoyable experience, and not too bad of a drive, even though it was long.