{Works With Her Hands} Dying Day

If you had come to me five or six years ago and asked what type of a crafter I was, I would have said a quilter, and a quilter only. Sure, I learned how to knit and crochet at a much younger age, but I thought quilting was my one-true-love in the craft world. Fast forward two or three years, and I would have broadened into being a seamstress, because I loved making quilts AND clothes. But ask me today, and I couldn't even being to give you an answer! I just love doing a little bit of everything, from paper to fabric to yarn, and everything in between.

While I still love quilting, and must always have at least one quilt in the making, I've recently been discovering all the other awesome fiber arts; three weeks ago I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. Gosh, was that a tricky one to pick up! But, I did it....I'm getting a little better each and every time I try. Yesterday, a group of friends got together and we dyed wool yarn, the 19th century way with big kettles hanging over the fire and all-natural dyes. Now, I have some awesome plans for knitting up the yarns I dyed!

Getting things started by mordanting the yarn. Mordant, I learned is a pre-treatment for the yarn which will soak up the dye and make it colorfast. They seemed to be mostly metals....tin, chrome, alum, etc. 

Yarn soaking in sumac, to create a red-ish brown. This same yarn was then heated with water in an iron pot to become a charcoal grey. An yes, the pot or container that you dye things in makes a difference in color, too!

Getting the sage ready:

Because every party with *mostly* females needs a lot of this!

Right now it looks like some disgusting witch's brew, especially the sage:

Yay for frog hats! It was cold in the morning....

Checking out the walnut dye:

Our amazing picnic lunch of chili, cornbread, and baked potatoes. We sure know how to do these things right.

Most of us brought other fibery projects, too, like knitting and spinning.

All the pretty colors, fustic (yellow) on the right, madder on tin (orange) in the middle, and sage green on the left.

We had pretty colors all around us, too!

We also dyed with some indigo:

This yarn ended up variegated blue/green because of an interesting pre-treatment.....it was so beautiful!

And isn't this madder on tin amazing? Madder is a root, and can actually produce some very different colors depending on what mordant is used. Tin makes this fantastic orange. I was literally bouncing with happiness when my yarn came out this color!

Fustic, madder, and sage.

Marisa's yarn was partly acrylic, so it didn't hold the sage dye very well, which you can see in this picture. However, she then over-dyed it with indigo, and ended up with a beautiful light grey-blue.

Ron showing Sarah her fustic overdyed with indigo, watching it grow darker as it oxidized.

Such pretty colors! That green was produced by fustic and indigo.

Madder, sage, and cochineal (red):

Yeah, color makes me so ridiculously happy. It was so  fun experimenting, and learning how to produce such fabulous colors. The best part? They're all period correct for the 19th century. So when visitors harass me next year about how "They wouldn't have such a bright orange back then!", I'll be able to inform them that it really is accurate, and I even dyed it myself!