Hunting for Wild Color

Today I took a drive on some of the small roads near my home. I live in the middle of farm country, so much of the land near me is used for crop production. Farmers are pretty diligent about controlling weeds in their field. Especially those on the Minnesota Department of Ag Noxious Weed list. The ditches and railroad beds are still good hunting grounds. I have spotted several plants that are identified as dye plants, and several that, although not listed, seem like they may have something to offer. Can't hurt to try, right?

Leafy Spurge is one of those weeds that appears on the noxious weed list. This means that it is so invasive it risks taking over native species, or that it is harmful to livestock.  Leafy spurge is a lovely plant. Many gardeners have put it into their gardens. It does, however spred through seeds, in the air, and water and is extremely invasive. Gardeners can control their patches by digging unwanted plants, but it is harder to control in natural settings.

Leafy Spurge has yellow green flowers on green foliage. Not vibrant color, pale compared to a lot of wildflowers and weeds, (which is mostly a matter of where they are and if you want them there). I'd does make a wonderful dye plant. For dyeing, I cut the plant leaves and stems. I did not try using the root, which could give a very different color. I used my standard recipe: 1:1 wool to dye stuff; alum mordant at one tenth of that amount. I mordanted the wool by heating it with the alum in water to simmer for about one hour and then let it cool. I squeezed the liquid out of the wool and rinsed it. I simmered the Leafy Spurge in water for about an hour and let it steep for two days, strained it and put the wetted wool in. Simmered for an hour and let it steep until cold.

This is what the yarn turned out like! Beautiful color. I never would have thought there would be that much color.  This is definitely a plant I will use again.

A couple other plants I gathered were Showy Milkweed and Northern Bedstraw, a relative of Lady's Bedstraw. I have found stands of Winter Cress, Goat's Beard, Bindweed, Indian Hemp, and several thistles, wild roses and more that I will get another day. I am looking forward to trying a lot of new plants this summer.

Red Cabbage Blues

I am starting to think about dyeing wool all the time.  I couldn't get to sleep last night thinking about all the possibilities! I had to drive about 35 miles this morning to take one of our dogs to the vet. All the way home I found myself  watching the ditches more than the road...  I spied all sorts of wildflowers/weeds blooming that I recognized from my dye books! I decided that I can't leave home any more without boxes, bags, gloves and a clipper.

Today I am dyeing with red cabbage. While I was in town I picked up a few groceries, and there, in the produce section, calling my name, was one lone head of red cabbage. I couldn't leave it there with all the green ones. So, into my cart it went.

This is really amazing. I put two gallons of water in my dye pot. I added 14 oz. (400 g.) of chopped red cabbage. I brought this to a boil and then simmered it for an hour. I let it cool on the pot and sit for another two hours.  The color I was hoping to get in the wool was a greenish blue. When I first boiled the cabbage the water turned a beautiful sapphire blue. Oh if my yarn turned that color! 

I put the mordant, 20g. of alum, into a quart of very hot tap water with 14g of cream of tartar. I stirred this until it was dissolved and added it to the dye bath.  When I added this mixture to the dye bath the whole thing turned a deep reddish purple. 

I soaked my clean wool (7 oz, 200g), in hot tap water and brought the dye bath temperature up. I added the wool to the pot and brought it to just under a boil for one hour. As I heated the wool, the dye bath turned more and more violet colored. So far, I would accept any of those colors, but I new it was going to change again.  I turned off the heat and let the wool sit in the dye bath over night. So far, I loved all the does I had seen, but I knew it was to turn more blue/green so I waited. The next morning the color had moved a bit more to the blue, sort of lavender, but not what I was expecting. Also, the yarn had not taken up much of the color and remained very pale. I reheated the dye bath and simmered it for another hour. Then I placed it outside to steep like sun tea. Several hours later the yarn still had little color so I added a cup of vinegar which brought back more red. I left the dye pot for another 24 hours.

This morning is enough. I took the wool out of the pot, a very pale lavender. It is drying outside. I put the day bath into a big jug for a friend of mine who will use it for making paper. I plan to use the other half head of cabbage to dye more wool. This time I will mordant the wool, not the bath and compare the results. I have read that you can do it either way, but, I want to try it myself.

Rhubarb : It's a Good Day to Dye!

I decided to brave the mosquitoes the other day and went out to the garden to pick another arm load of rhubarb. I made more tea with  the stems and decided to try the leaves for dying. I tore
up enough leaves to fill my dye pot (that is 12 inches in diameter) about three inches full. I added enough water to cover and brought it to a boil. I reduced the heat and simmered the mix for an hour. I let that mixture cool and steep for about 24 hours.

The next day was dying day. I decides to dye three skeins of white wool I had spun with some of my roving. I had already washed the yarn. the skeins were about 110 yards each and weighed just over 3 oz. together. I placed the skeins in hot tap water to get them completely wet. I didn't mordant this yarn because rhubarb leaves have a lot of Oxalic Acid in them. This acts as a mordant for dying, and can be used as such with different dyestuffs. It also means that the rhubarb leaves are poisonous for humans so care must be taken. Any pots, utensils, and other equipment used for dying must not be used for cooking. If you don't have any old pots and things around, try looking at a second hand store. If you are using enamel coated pots, like an old water bath canner, be sure it has no chips or the metal could leach into your dye bath. This will affect the colors you end up with.  Also, it is necessary to wear rubber gloves to avoid contact with the dye bath.

I heated the dye bath to a temperature equal to the water the yarn was soaking in. I added the yarn to the dye bath.  In this photo you can see a tiny bit of blue yarn. I use that to identify the yardage. It is necessary to tie the yarn with a small piece of yarn in at least three places (I use four) to avoid tangles during the dying process. I mark my skeins with different color yarn pieces to keep track of the yardage when the skeins are wet.


I simmered the yarn in the dye bath for about an hour and a half. I removed the whole pot from the stove and let the yarn steep for about 24-30 hours. I removed the yarn. Squeezed out the remaining liquid and washed it in hot water with Eucalan wool wash. I dried it in the sun on the clothes line

I decided to make myself a scarf with my yarn. I found this pattern by Elizabeth Morrison. It is not difficult and works up fast. I think it is a good choice for this yarn.  The link below will take you to the pattern PDF.

Mead Scarf Pattern

Snow on the Mountain

This is a picture of a garden in a shady corner of my yard. Originally, it was a rock garden with a rock fence and a path that wandered through it. I made a big mistake many years ago and introduced Snow on the Mountain into the garden (the plant with the variegated green and white leaves). It pretty much ran almost everything else out of the garden with the exception of the Wood Anemones and the purple Dames Rocket. I tried several times to dig it out with no  success (I am sure it should be illegal to charge money for it in plant stores).

I have recently found a use for this invader that makes me feel much better about giving my garden over to it. I decided to try to dye wool with it. It was a round-about journey but I ended up with beautiful results. The best part is that I get to decapitate the Snow on the Mountain plants. This picture was taken after I had cut what I needed!

I started the process with Asparagus. I cooked some for supper one night and noticed a beautiful green color in the water. We ate that asparagus, but I went out and picked a bunch more, about two pounds. I brought that in, cleaned it and chopped it into 2" pieces. I simmered it in two gallons of water for one hour and let it sit in the liquid over night. The next day I drained and strained it and added .33g. Alum for a mordant. I also added .18g. cream of tartar for an assist. I placed three ounces of white roving into the pot and simmered it for about one hour. I shut the heat off and left the wool in the dye bath for about 36 hours. After the first twelve or so hours I added .18g of citric acid as well.  The pot still had a nice green color, but the yarn remained white.  Enter the Snow on the Mountain.

I removed the yarn from the pot, left the liquid and filled the pot with chopped up Snow on the Mountain. I put about one and a half plastic grocery bags in and pushed it all under the water. The mordant (alum) and cream of tartar was still in the water. I did not add more. I simmered this for about an hour, let it cool some, and added the yarn back to the pot. I simmered the yarn for an hour and removed it from the heat.

The dye bath turned a very soft, lemony yellow. It also smelled very bad so I put it outside. I let this stand another 36 hours. The color didn't really go into the wool until the last twelve hours.

In this particular case the mordant was added directly to the dye bath. This is easier than mordanting the yarn and then placing it in the dye bath. The drawback is that if you want to experiment with other mordants you can't because the dye bath and not the wool has the mordant. There are several other things that can be used as mordants such as tannin, vinegar, and heavy metals such as silver, chrome, iron, tin or copper. The metals are quite toxic so disposing of them is a problem. Each will produce a different color with the same dye stuff. I have decided that I will use alum as a mordant in the interest of keeping this adventure safe and focused. I can't imagine I will run out of colors by using just alum!

The yarn, when removed from the dye bath was washed with hot water and Eucalan Wool Wash. It was then hung outside to dry. The result is a beautiful soft yellow, the color of lemonaide. I now have three ounces of wool ready for spinning.

(I tried several times to get a good photo of the wool, but could not capture the color. I bought a package of colored index cards with yellow, pink, blue and green cards. The yellow matches the yellow wool, if that helps).

The focus is focus...

I am the kind of person who has dabbled in a million things. I look back over my years of working doing everything from long-haul truck driving, social work, retail sales, upholstery business, green housing, to name a few. My interests are constantly shifting. I have been fortunate enough to follow my whims to some extent.

I have toyed with a myriad of different artistic venues. Working with clay, painting in several different media, woodcarving, quilting, beading, raising livestock, gardening, and many others. Each time I found a new interest I bought every book and all the equipment I could find. I am very lucky (?)  to live in a large, old farmhouse with just my husband, three dogs and two cats for competition! I found fiber and spinning about fifteen years ago and have stayed with that in one form or another ever since. I am not saying there haven't been side trips, but I always seem to come back!

I have been working hard this last six months on the idea of focus, single-pointedness. I have been clearing out a three decade collection of must-haves. I am trying hard to quiet the voices that call out to me from all corners. The house is a much more peaceful place when it is is not trying to tempt me in a different direction, not to mention it is becoming much less cluttered. I have all my yarn, spinning and knitting stuff in one large room now. My weaving didn't fit, so the loom is still in one of the living rooms. Remnants of other endeavors are stored in a large closet, waiting to be brought back out.

My latest fascination (here we go again), is with natural dye stuffs and wool. I have tried several things so far; rhubarb leaves, asparagus, and Snow on the Mountain to name a few. I have been looking through my many books on natural dyes and have started a list (now three pages long) of dye stuff I want to harvest or grow. Everything I look at now makes me wonder, "what color could I get from that".  I think I will have to start carrying a bag and a clipper with me everywhere I go.

In an effort to remain focused, I have decided that I will experiment with many different dye stuffs, but  stick to Alum as the mordant as it is the least toxic, and will vary the assists and other things that can affect the color. I also have a supply of nicely softened water with the iron removed, or hard water full of iron. That will affect the outcomes as well. I am very grateful to sheep and other animals  that continue to produce raw fiber for me to play with!

As I said in my very first post, this is a  journey and I hope you will join me! I am in no way an expert, but ready to jump in with both feet and see where it takes me!

Dyeing With Food Coloring

I decided to try dying some of my homespun wool with food coloring. I have ordered some Jaquard Acid Dyes from Knit Picks, but am too impatient to wait for them! I have read about dyeing wool yarn with food coloring, Easter egg dyes and Koolaid. I have not been able to find out how color fast these dyes are, so I decided to try it myself.

I had three 100 yard skeins of wool three ply handspun yarn that I decided to play with. I got a Pyrex 9x9 cake pan, some large class bowls, a couple packages of food coloring from the dollar store, vinegar, cling wrap, a wooden spoon, a colander, and my microwave. The food coloring that I used is the kind that comes in a little box with four small bottles, a red, yellow, green and blue.  Because everything was food grade, I was not concerned about using special utensils. I started by soaking three skeins of yarn in a large bowl with enough water to cover and a cup of vinegar. I soaked the yarn for about 15 minutes, squeezing it a bit to ensure that it was completely wet and there were no air bubbles.

I took a skein of yarn, squeezed the vinegar water out if it and placed it in the Pyrex cakepan. I added just enough water to the pan to cover the yarn. I didn't want too much extra water because I wanted to use several colors and didn't want them to all mix. Then I dropped food coloring onto the yarn. For the first skein I used several drops of each color in different areas of the pan. I covered the pan with the cling wrap and microwaved it on high power for two  minutes. I did not want the yarn to overheat or to boil. I removed it from the microwave. The colors were not moving much so I poked at the yarn with the wooden spoon, pushing it down and around a bit to get the dye moving. I let the skein cool for a few minutes and replaced it in the microwave for two more minutes. I repeated this process four times. When I checked the dye bath, all the color was exhausted and the water was clear. I carefully dumped the yarn into the colander, drained it, placed it in a bowl and rinsed it several times in plain water until the water was clear. I then hung the skein to dry

I did the same thing to the other two skeins of yarn, using different colors each time. I tested the dyebath by dipping a small piece if paper towel into the liquid to check the color. I dyed one skein with blue and green and let them mix up a bit, but maintained some areas of each color. The third skein I just started adding color until I got something I liked. I stirred it around to mix the colors more completely, then dropped more color on certain areas to create a mottled effect.

After the yarn was dry I reskeined it. I thought it was beautiful! Very nice results. About a week later I decided to see how colorfast the dye was in water. I washed the skeins with warm water and Eukalan Wool Wash. Unfortunately, some of the color came out in the wash water. I tried to soak the yarn in vinegar and rewash it and it continued to give up color. I am disappointed by this, because I don't dare use the yarn for clothing or anything that may get wet, like a hat, mittens, etc. I am still trying to figure out how to use it. Any suggestion are appreciated.

Meanwhile, my Jaquard dyes have arrived. I have been spinning a yarn of 25% silk and 75% wool. I can't wait to dye that with the Jaquard dyes. The different fibers will take up the dye differently and create something lovely!

Rhubarb-Eat, Drink and Dye!

One  thing we have a lot of this time of the is rhubarb. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to use it. Each year I try new recipies for cake, cookies, crisps and crumbles as well as tea. This year I am going to try dyeing some of my newly spun wool with the rhubarb  leaves as well.  I spent some time looking through my books on natural dyeing. I found several discussions on using rhubarb root as a dyestuff. Using the dried root will produce some nice shades of yellow, depending on other variables in the process such as the water used, what the dye pot is made of, amount of dyestuff used, to name a few. It is very important to keep good records if you want to be able to repeat the process with similar results. This is true for any kind of dyeing and especially true for using natural dyes. I have decided I am not ready to dig up my rhubarb plants at this time so I will have to wait to try that. I do, however, have an abundance of rhubarb leaves. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid. Oxalic acid is poisonous to humans so care is needed. Oxalic acid can be used as a mordant for dyeing fiber, especially animal fiber.  When rhubarb leaves are the color agent there is no need to mordant the yarn first.  The method I am going to use is chopping the leaves and simmering them is water and letting them stand over night. Then I will strain the liquid and use that for dyeing my wool. I will be posting more specific directions and pictures of the results soon.

In the meantime, here are a couple of this year's recipies for using the stems:

Rhubarb Tea.                                                                                         
8 stalks of rhubarb                                8 cups of water
orange or lemon peel                            Sugar to taste
A few sprigs of mint (I especially like Mojito Mint for this)



Cut the rhubarb into three inch pieces. Add the water and citrus peel. Simmer for one hour. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain the liquid. Add sugar to taste. Serve over ice with a sprig of mint. Very refreshing!

Rhubarb Cake
1 1/4 C white sugar                              1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt.                                            2 C white flour
2 eggs, beaten.                                     1 C sour cream
3C diced rhubarb
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking dish.
In a large bowl combine 11/4 C of sugar, baking soda, salt, and two cups flour.
Stir in eggs and sour cream until smooth. Fold the rhubarb into this mixture.

In a small bowl, combine 1cup sugar, 1/3 cup butter (softened) and stir til smooth.
Add 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup nuts (optional), and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Sprinkle over cake.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool, serve with ice cream.