Tuesday, May 15, 2012

natural dyeing part one.

 
weighing out the alum

cotton dyed in cutch

i've been itching to try natural dyeing since getting rebecca burgess' book 'harvesting color' as part of a christmas gift from chris (and recommended by erin considine, thanks erin!) - i finally got my chance last week after hoarding enough fabric and yarn to finally justify one big enough go at it.  i'm pretty pleased with the results.

the primaries, clockwise: indigo, madder, indigo, indigo, alkanet, cutch

clockwise: madder + cutch, indigo + madder, alkanet + cutch

all indigo + cutch, top and right cutch overdyed with indigo

left: madder + alkanet, right: madder + cutch

cutch + indigo

alkanet + indigo

i used madder, cutch, alkanet, sandalwood and indigo.  the prep process which covers the pre-washing of the yarns and fabrics and mordanting can be pretty time intensive - i learned my lesson to do these well in advance for next time.  

laying out to dry

i combined multiple colors on a few skeins of yarn and some cuts of fabric, my favorite combination thus far is a pale madder combined with a light indigo - it makes a complex mauve/purple/grey shade with variations in both shade and color in the final result:

madder + indigo

i'll have more photos of how the fabric turned out in part two, i ended up with way more photos than i thought i would!  i'll get the post up later this week, stay tuned.

6 comments:

Randazza Casting said...

Wow, Kay! Those are gorgeous. Nice work :)

Yossy said...

These colors are killer! What are you going to do with al of the yarn? I've tried to take up knitting every winter for the last few years, but it never sticks...

kay w. said...

i'm the same way! every winter i always swear to try to learn how to knit but i swear i can't figure it out unless someone sits there with me and walks me through it. pathetic, i know.

i'm using a few skeins to make a woven piece to use on a pillow, but the rest i'm not sure about just yet. maybe loom a couple necklaces or something.

Belinda said...

These are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

I've been dabbling in some natural dyeing myself. I've been using 'Eco Colour' by India Flint as a reference. I recommend that too.

I'm a winter knitter too. I just don't enjoy touching the yarn when the weather is warm.

Jaime Rugh said...

such beautiful colors! love them

Jaime Rugh said...

such beautiful colors- love them!