Plant and flower material can be used to dye yarn. For example:
- Violet and yellow chrysanthemums create a yellow/green dye. A slightly different yellow comes from the stem and leaves.
- Madder root, a traditional dye plant, produces a rust color.
- Lichens give a lavender color. You might expect gray, but that's not the case.
- Onion skins give good yellow color to yarn.
- Longwood is a tropical tree that creates a purple color.
- Walnut husks produce a warm brown.
- Indigo blue, which is used to dye blue jeans, is an old dye that has been used for centuries.
To extract the color and dye yarn, you need two pots of simmering water. Extract color from flowers by deadheading. Put the flower parts into a pot of simmering water. You can use flower pedals but stems and leaves can also be used, yielding a slightly different color. The weight of the yarn should equal the weight of the flower.
While this is simmering, another process fixes the color onto the yarn. It's called mordanting, using a mordant (fixer) that's available at garden centers and in grocery stores. This one consists of a teaspoon of cream of tartar and a tablespoon of aluminum sulfate. This is a weight-based process, so use enough for a skein of yarn.
Simmer the mordant in a pot of water. Then, simply add the yarn to the mordant mix, making sure it is fully submerged in the water. After both pots (one with the yarn and mordant, the other with the dye) have simmered for one hour, separate the plant material from the dye. Then simmer the yarn in the dye bath for about one hour to absorb the color. Simply hang to dry, and the yarn will be dyed a natural color.
Guests Rosemary McFarland and Virginia Parent
Volunteers
Weavers Guild of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Phone: 612-436-0463
Website:
www.weaversguildmn.com
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