At last I have found the time to write about the dyeing course we had here in August. Everyone felt is was a great success and left here with over a kilo of their own plant dyed, carded wool and one person with a kilo or so of yarn as well. We made a number of different 80 litre dye pots over the 5 days and the afternoon of the 4th day was spent over-dyeing with indigo.
The last day we were pre-carding and carding everyone’s wool into multi-layered batts.
With each dye bath, we experimented with a number of different mordants to see what colours they gave, and then the pot was divided into smaller, individual baths.
Sorting the plant dyed samples... click on the image to see full size
Everyone worked very hard and was quite tired at the end of it… but smiling…
Selection of plants used: Tansy, Heather, Rhubarb, Lupins, Conocybes, Ground Elder, Nettles, St. Johns Wort… and others…
I will be putting a gallery of photos up some time soon.