Dyeing Yarn with Goldenrod

This is a blog post I started last year, when I was in a yarn dyeing frenzy.  It sat as a draft with pictures for months and months... But last week I dyed with Goldenrod again (but forgot to take pictures) so I thought this would be a fitting post.  I have talked about yarn dyeing a few times on the blog, including this post with a more detailed description of the process.

Goldenrod is a wildflower (or weed, depending on who you ask) that grows in empty lots, along highways, and pretty much everywhere in Ohio in the late summer and early fall.  Last year a coworker filled a trashbag for me with the Goldenrod plants growing in his backyard.  This year I was able to scavenge some from an empty lot down by the railroad tracks.  Last year I used the flower, stems, and leaves to make the dye bath, but you can also get nearly the same color from just the flower heads.

I simmered the plant for about an hour before straining out the plant material.  I bought a big mesh ladle thing from the Chinese grocery store and it works great for this!  Meanwhile, I prepared my yarn by mordanting it in a solution of alum.  The yarn came out a beautiful, bright yellow.

I made a TON of dye that day, so I also dyed two additional skeins of yarn and treated them with an iron afterbath.  To get the iron solution I soaked a bunch of rusty nails and other metal bits in a jar with water and vinegar. Then I put the solution in a pot and heated it to almost a boil.  One skein I dipped from the dye bath into the iron bath for about 20-30 seconds (the color changes right before your eyes, it is amazing.)  That one came out a lovely light green.  The next skein I put into the iron bath for longer, probably 1-2 minutes, and it came out a dark forest green.

Fiber Rituals - Art Book 5/14

I finished this book in late September for an Art Books Cleveland exhibition.  The exhibition just ended, and I was finally able to take photos of the book.  The theme of the exhibition was rituals.  I thought about it for months, came up with several ideas, but never actually started anything... I kept getting distracted by spinning wool and dyeing yarn.  That is when I realized that my book should be about the rituals involved with fiber- the things I had become obsessed about this summer!

I came up with seven different rituals associated with wool, and illustrated each one of them.  Scouring, mordanting, dyeing, carding, spinning, plying, and knitting.  The whole book is only about 4 inches tall.

To make the cover, I dyed strips of kozo paper with leftover plant dyes.  Then I spun the paper into thread using a drop spindle, and knit it into a rectangle.  It was my first time spinning paper and using it for a book.  It is a little tricky to get a nice thread without breaking or tearing the paper.  Compared to spinning wool, it is almost easier because you don't need to worry about drafting the fibers, you just need to give the paper twist.

I know I am way behind on my 14 Art Books for 2014.  It has been an interesting year to say the least, with several big changes in my life.  I have two unfinished art books sitting in my studio, and the ideas/materials for at least three more...  Time to get back in my studio and do this!

Dyeing Yarn with Queen Anne's Lace

 

Another one of my natural dye experiments this summer was with Queen Anne's Lace.  In the summertime Queen Anne's Lace is a wildflower that flourishes in empty lots, along highways, and any other green space that does not get mowed.  These flowers remind me of spending summer "up north" at my grandparent's cottage as a kid.  They grew everywhere and where my favorite flowers to pick.  Now that I am making natural dyes, I knew I had to use Queen Anne's Lace somehow.

 

 

I started by going down to the railroad tracks one August day and cutting giant handfuls of Queen Anne's Lace like I was making a bouquet.  I needed at least 4 oz. of flowers to dye one skein of yarn.  Then I went through the cooking process, strained off the flowers, and dyed 3.5 oz. of wool mordanted in alum.  (You can read more about the dyeing process on my these previous posts.)

 

So far this has been my favorite dye as far as aroma.  Since Queen Anne's Lace is in the carrot family, it has a kind of spicy carrot scent while cooking.  The final product ended up being a light, bright yellow.  Stay tuned for more posts about ecodyeing!  I've dyed about 30 skeins of yarn this summer and fall, and now that the weather is cooler I'm catching up on my blogging.

 

Dyeing Yarn with Blueberries

Another one of my natural dye experiments was dyeing yarn with blueberries.  I started with a skein of 100% wool yarn and pre-mordanted the fiber in Alum.  Mordant helps the yarn to accept color better, and Alum tends to provide the brightest and clearest colors, compared to using copper or iron as mordants.

 

I made the dye bath using a 1:1 ratio of berries to fiber.  In this case, the blueberries had been left behind in the fridge at work and had started to get wrinkly and soft.  Instead of throwing them in the compost, I took them home for dyeing.  To get the maximum amount of color from the berries, I added a small amount of water to the pot and crushed the berries with a potato masher.  (I did this without the water at first and ended up squirting berry juice everywhere...)

 

 

After keeping just below a simmer for an hour, I strained out the berry pieces and added the wet fiber.  The dye bath looked like a gorgeous pink/purple, and I was really hoping that would transfer to the fibers.  When the fiber was rinsed and dryed, it ended up looking more like a blue-ish lavender.  It is still a lovely color, but definitely shows how unpredictable natural dyeing can be.

 

Dyeing Yarn with Zinnias

As I mentioned in a previous post, my interest in natural dyeing has been renewed.  I have kind of gone crazy with dyeing yarn (which you will see in my next five... or ten... blog posts) starting with zinnia flowers from the garden.

I started out by weighing the flowers and getting a 2:1 ratio of flowers to fiber.  My skeins are 3.5 oz, and I also dyed a small amount of wool for spinning, so I used about 8 oz of zinnias.  Then  I simmered the flowers in my dye pot for about an hour to extract the color, and strained out the flower pieces so it doesn't tangle with the yarn.

 

The yarn is 100% wool, pre-mordanted in alum so it will accept the color better and be more light-fast.  Before adding the wool to the dye bath, I soaked it in water so it will dye more evenly.  After an hour or so in the hot dye bath, I removed the yarn, let it cool, and rinsed out the remaining dye.  The zinnia dye turned out to be a gorgeous buttery yellow, much more subdued than the turmeric.

Dyeing Yarn with Turmeric

So I actually dyed this yarn almost a year ago.  I had been putting off taking photos of the yarn and finishing the blog post... But now that I am getting back into natural dyeing and will be posting more of my experiments with natural dyes, I figured it was time to actually post this.

I participated in a local CSA program (community supported agriculture) which gives members a bag of fresh vegetables every week.  One week the bag included fresh Turmeric grown in the hoop house.  The turmeric root is bright yellow and usually used in curry and other similar dishes.  I already had a container of good ground turmeric in my spice rack, so I decided to use the fresh stuff to dye yarn.

 

I started by cleaning the roots and chopping them into small pieces.  The more surface area that is exposed, the easier it is to extract all the color available into the dye bath.  I added the chopped pieces to a pot of water and simmered for an hour or so to extract the dye.  (Note: I have a special pot set aside for dyeing, that is not used for food.)  I noticed that the dye wasn't very strong, so I supplemented the chopped roots with a teaspoon of ground turmeric from the pantry.

Luckily turmeric does not require a separate mordant to dye effectively.  Mordants prepare the fiber for dyeing so it can accept color from the dye bath.  Certain natural dye stuffs have a natural mordanting agent, so the fiber does not need any pre-treatment.  I took my ball of Paton's Classic Wool and wound it into a large loop so it could move freely in the dye bath.  After securing the loop, I soaked it in cool water in the sink to remove any bubbles or air pockets from the fiber (this helps the yarn dye more evenly.)

I turned the stove down and added my fiber to the dye pot so it could simmer for an hour or more.  I also added some wool roving to the dye pot, so I could use it for spinning later.  As an experiment I dipped one section of roving into an acidic solution (vinegar) after the dyeing process, and one section in an alkaline solution (baking soda and water.)  Treating dyes fibers in different pH solutions will change the color.  One section of roving turned brighter yellow and the other turned a little redder, and shifted towards orange.

Apparently I fail at documenting my process in photos... Because this is all I've got.  Don't worry, I've done a lot more dyeing since then and I (sort of) got better about taking photos.  Stay tuned for more posts about natural dyeing!

Ecodyeing: Paper and Yarn

July was a very busy month for me in terms of art. Basically, I've been making things faster than I could possibly blog about them! In an effort to catch up, I'm writing a bunch of blog posts this week about my recent projects.

As part of my job at the Morgan Conservatory I have the opportunity to meet many wonderful artists, specifically in the areas of paper, print, and book arts. One of the artists that came through recently was Velma Bolyard. She spent the weekend in Cleveland teaching a workshop on ecodyeing, and I was around to take pictures and watch the process. The workshop students layered plant material, paper, and occasionally pieces of metal, tied them up with string into bundles.  The prepared bundles get boiled in a large pot of water for several hours. The best part of the process is unwrapping the bundles and rinsing off the plant material to reveal the patterns and colors left behind by the plants.

I was around that weekend observing the process, and Velma encouraged me to make a couple bundles of my own. I used scraps of the cotton paper I usually use for book pages. The paper tore in a few places, but the results were still thrilling! I ended up using the dyed paper as part of an abstract art book.

While cleaning up after the workshop, there was still a large bag of Staghorn Sumac leftover. I took a gallon Ziploc full, and used it to dye yarn the next day.

I've dyed yarn before, but this was secondly the best end result. Mostly because the Sumac has natural tannins that act as a mordant for the yarn.

The fuzzy red bunches from the Sumac created a lovely brown dye bath (and actually smelled really nice while cooking.) I dyed one skein of white wool yarn, and a chunk of wool roving for spinning. The process took the whole day, but it was definitely worth it.

 

Turquoise and Red

Based on the comments from my last post about yarn, I decided to try a combination of turquoise and red.  (Thanks Fenna!)  I dyed two balls of yarn using red kool-aid, blue kool-aid, and a little bit of lemonade.  It is amazing how the same colors can turn out so different!  For the first ball of yarn I started with two packets of red.  The red is a very strong tinter, and sort of overpowered the batch.  I dyed the remaining white parts with two packets of blue.  It turned out with a primarily red yarn with a few purple bits, and some bright blue bits.

For the second ball of yarn I started with two packets of blue.  The blue ended up much lighter than the first batch but covered more of the yarn.  Then I added one packet of red in an attempt to not overpower the blue.  I ended up with a lot of white space left over.  I added a packet of lemonade, but it still turned out very light (especially in comparison to the first batch.)

In other news, my yarn is now on sale at Crafty Goodness in Lakewood, Ohio!  Stop on by and take a look at all the good stuff available from NE-Ohio artists.  Also, check them out on facebook.

New Dyed Yarn

I recently dyed two more skeins of yarn using Kool-Aid.  (See my previous post for information about the dyeing process.)  The first skein started as white 100% wool and was dyed using Strawberry, Orange, Lime, and Lemonade.  The result is a bright, tropical, tutti-frutti kind of color.

The second skein was a gray 100% wool skein dyed with Strawberry, Grape, Ice Blue Raspberry, and Pink Lemonade.  Using gray yarn as a base created a muted color palette for the finished yarn.  My next experiment will be using tan yarn as a base for dyeing.  Any suggestions for color choices?  What has been your favorite Kool-Aid dyed yarn so far?

Kool-Aid Yarn

A couple weeks ago I spent the day dyeing yarn in my crock pot with Kool-Aid. I have used this technique before, and wanted to share! I started my experiments last year after seeing this tutorial from the do stuff! blog. The idea is to use a crock pot as the dye vessel instead of a pot of boiling water on the stove. Dyeing yarn this way is easy, but it takes some patience... and is highly addicting!
For this skein I used pink lemonade, black cherry, ice blue raspberry lemonade, orange, and two packets of lemonade.
This was my first attempt from a year ago. I followed the article's instructions closely, down to the color/flavor choices (although I might have used cherry instead of strawberry.)
My next dyed skein used strawberry, grape, and orange. Blending colors closer together in the color wheel produced a more subtle variegated yarn. The orange and grape worked well to create a less intense color. I used this yarn to knit a slip stitch lace scarf.