I posted this in Projects because my personal Weavolution post gremlin wouldn't give up today:

http://weavolution.com/project/neshobe/experiment-natural-dyes

Sorry about the lack of line breaks. It kept crashing me, so I ended up composing the notes in my word processor to keep from losing them, and for some reason though the line breaks showed when I pasted they didn't post that way, Hope it doesn't make reading too hard. I'd like to edit that and also make the photos bigger, but I'm afraid it would crash on me again! (I am one of the people who seem to have a regular problem posting at all, which is why though I visit I rarely post).



I'm going to try to post the bigger pic here. Keeping fingers crossed, because I have never been able to do it in successfully in a message here.

 

Comments

Neshobe (not verified)

Tried to fix the line breaks, but it didn't work. But at least it let me attach a larger pic of the dye experiments! Bit larger than I intended, though.

debmcclintock

Really wonderful colors, thank you for persevering to post them. Who knew that alfalfa would give that wonderful color. I haven't worked with rhubarb yet, you guys are making me more curious about it. I've always read about it as a mordant but the colors are so much darker than I imagined. I'm curious what way the undercolor would affect any overdying. No need to answer, just thinking out loud!

Neshobe (not verified)

And will be trying some on the lighter shades. I want to get some more alfalfa and do up more: my daughter and I are entranced by that color (it is actually a little more subtle green than the pic). The only reference I've found to alfalfa as a dye was in an old agricultural tract about uses of alfalfa (lucerne, as is called in Europe). I imagine it was one of the natural dyestuffs replaced by chemical dyes.

I want to do some fastness tests on all the colors by hanging 6" lengths of yarn in a south-facing window, too, to compare with the stored skeins. A winter of sun on snow should do it.

Michele (not verified)

I would love to see the effects on each dye depending on what mordants was used! Lovely work!