Last week I took this:
Knit Picks Bare Fingereing
and put it in this:
a bowl of water.
Then I cooked up some of this:
dye from the walnuts off of our tree
and added my yarn:
I let it simmer all day and all night:
then hung it out to dry:
don’t worry, I put it in the shade after photographing it.
When it was dry, I wound it into a cake:
and oohed and ahhed and made everyone in the house smell it and touch it and admire it and compliment my dyeing prowess.
And this concludes my first attempt at dyeing yarn. I am not incredibly thrilled with the outcome – I had hoped for a more tonal variegation rather than straight tan. I also was looking for something a little more akin to purple. However, this wasn’t about getting a certain end, but rather the learning of a new skill. I think it is only the beginning. It was incredibly exciting.
Love that you’re taking it to a new level! How I wish we were closer ❤
I wonder if alkanet root would work for purple?
From Wikipedia…
“In medieval Europe, purple, violet, murrey and similar colors were produced by dyeing wool with woad or indigo in the fleece and then piece-dyeing the woven cloth with red dyes, either the common madder or the luxury dyes kermes and cochineal. Madder could also produce purples when used with alum. Brazilwood also gave purple shades with vitriol (sulfuric acid) or potash.[41]
Choctaw artists traditionally used maple (Acer sp.) to create lavender and purple dyes.[24] Purples can also be derived from lichens, and from the berries of White Bryony from the northern Rocky Mountain states and mulberry (morus nigra) (with an acid mordant).[42]”
Also, for a more variegated yarn, add an acid like vinegar early on in splashes to the dye pot, it will cause the yarn to take up the color at different rates.
Cool! Thanks. 🙂