More Indigo Dyeing

Last weekend I had the pleasure of teaching my fourth indigo dye workshop at ReBelle, as well as two shibori classes. I have talked about the technical side of indigo dyeing before so this entry won't be about that. If you want to learn a bit about indigo, specifically my love affair with pre-reduced indigo check out that post.

Shibori projects right in various
levels of oxidation.

I love teaching dye classes. They are open to all types of crafters and unlike my other beginning classes, they change every time I teach them so they are never boring. I started with just an indigo dye workshop the first time out, but other than the quilters who came knowing exactly what they wanted to do, the class seemed to be too unstructured for most people. The second time I taught this class it was for the local fiber guild who took nicely to the open dye format. The third time I taught at the shop I added a shibori class right before the dye workshop where I provided two projects (a wrap and a tea towel) and that class sold out pretty quickly. Things worked well with the project format, so well that we added a batik class to the mix and moved both resist classes to a Saturday and the dyeing to Sunday so that students would have a chance to prepare their fabrics using the more involved shibori techniques. This format worked really well, not only did students have the opportunity to try two different resist techniques, everyone had plenty of time to prepare their projects for the dye vat and the results were amazing. Now that all of the kinks have been worked out, I am really looking forward to the next indigo weekend in September.

The great unveilling, cutting the threads on some sewn shibori.

Finally, a shop update

Two of my goals for the year were to relaunch my blog with an entry every week and to reopen my online shop, then in May I broke my leg. It was my first broken bone and it wasn't just a little break, it was a complicated break. I was able to avoid surgery, but as a result my recovery time was long. I was unable to bare weight, walk, or drive for the first eight weeks and I was unable to sit with my leg down for longer than a few minutes at a time. Basically I spent the entire summer on my sofa with my leg elevated. I knitted, read, and watched Netflix, not much else. My recovery was long an while I am still not totally healed, I am finally to the point where I can stand for reasonable periods of time and my leg requires minimal elevation. Last weekend I taught my first dye workshop all summer (well, technically I taught three back-to-back workshops) and I survived so I decided that now it is officially time for me to get back to my dye experiments and start blogging again.

Handpainted Panda Top available in my shop.

It's been awhile, but I have started selling my handdyes again. I dyed the fiber above for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival and some for the shop. Since I am walking and driving now, I am ready to sell online again. With all of the controversy surrounding etsy, I decided not to reopen my etsy shop, instead I am using Square's marketplace and hosting some of the items here. It's better for me which makes it better for you.

Over the coming weeks I will be adding several updates to my shop with a bunch more items. This week I am starting with some handdyed Panda top. Panda is a blend of 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo, and 10% nylon making it a perfect blend for spinning sock yarns. As a variation, I spun some a little thicker to make the yarn for a version of Woolly Wormhead's Abalone. The bamboo and nylon content make this hat perfect for the transitional weather between winter/spring and fall/winter. 

As a thank you for being one of my first online customers, use the promo code FibulaReparo for 15% off any order placed before September 15th.

Dyeing with Dandelions, part 1

Dandelion heads in the dyepot.

I have to admit, I have never understood the appeal of a manicured lawn and find grass boring. It could be due to this or my laziness that I allow dandelions to grow freely in my yard, much to the dismay to my neighbors. I love dandelions, they are bright and beautiful and are one of the first glimpses of the warm summer days to come. Spring started late this year so the dandelions didn't start popping up until the beginning of April, but within a week of the first flower they were everywhere so now seemed a good time to try out their dye capabilities.

I use mason jars for the copper and iron
baths. They are marked so I can reuse
them in future dye experiments.

I read a bit about dandelion dyes before I started so I knew that the results would be yellows, greens and browns. I decided to experiment a bit with dye concentrations so instead of sticking with the standard 1:1 ratio of dyestuff to fiber I did an additional 2:1 batch to see how deep the colors would go. I am only dyeing with the dandelion flowers this time around so after gathering the dandelions I decapitated them and weighed the heads. Dandelions need to be used fresh and according to one thing I read, the best color is achieved later in the season when they are getting more sun (it has been rainy and overcast here for a few weeks now so I might try another batch later in the summer to see if that actually does make a difference.) To make the dye liquor, I boiled the dandelion heads for 30 minutes, removed them from the liquid and then threw in my mordanted fibers to simmer for about 40 minutes and let them cool overnight before rinsing.

Final results- alum mordant, alum mordant with copper bath, alum mordant with iron mordant.

Now the specifics- I mordanted all of the sample skeins in alum and cream of tarter (12% alum, 6% cream of tarter.) The first skeins of each set were dyed with a 1:1 dyestuff to fiber ratio and the second skeins in each set were dyed with a 2:1 dyestuff to fiber ratio. I am absolutely in love with the lighter version of the green and plan to try some larger skeins. 

Next week I will dye with the leaves, stems and flowers of the dandelion to see if I can get more greens. 

Dyeing with Hibiscus, part 2

Last week I wrote about my hibiscus dyeing experience and how I was pretty disappointed with the color results. Since hibiscus is supposed to be very sensitive to tap water, I used distilled water for the entire process. The results I ended up with were pretty boring so I decided to try again using tap water to see if that might shift my results more towards the lavender I desired. Unfortunately, the tap water just produced slightly browner results, also something that did not interest me.

I wrote about indigo dyeing last month after I taught my first class on the process. I mentioned that pre-reduced indigo is reduced enough to be used with just water, but it makes for a more delicate one-time-use vat. While that process is completely inappropriate in a group dyeing setting (I spent a good chunk of my class time dealing with vats that kept getting oxidized by students not used to dyeing with indigo,) it is perfect for me when I need a quick vat. I made up a two gallon vat and was able to get multiple dips in the indigo before it was oxidized which was more than I expected out of such a simple vat. I also found the fibers dyed in the water vat rinsed clear much faster than those in a more traditional vat (which might have also been because all of the fibers going into this vat were mordanted in alum.)

From left to right- hibiscus in distilled water, hibiscus tap water, hibiscus tap water with one dip in indigo, hibiscus with two dips in indigo.

Now the specifics- the recipe I found called for 2 tablespoons of prereduced indigo to one gallon of cold water, but it mentioned that you can use as little as one teaspoon for lighter colors. I ended up going with 1 tablespoon in two gallons of water since I was only dyeing 8 sample skeins and 200g of fiber. I still didn't get the results that I wanted, but I really like the greenish blues that happen when you overdye the hibiscus skeins with indigo so there is a slight chance I will do this again.

Dyeing with Red Onion Skins

After the workshop, Chris and I set a goal of dyeing twice a month for the entire summer and documenting what we learn. We each have different goals in this, but we both want to learn what is available in this area of the country and how to get the best colors from what we have. Our first experiment was with red onion skins, mostly because I have never died with onion skins and I wanted to give it a shot. I have been taking all of the onion skins at the grocery store when I do my weekly shopping and even though I left with a sizable bag each time, it took me 5 weeks to gather enough skins for one dyebath.

215g of onion skins collected in my Grubby, a counter top compost collector given out by the city. I have vermicomposting in my kitchen so this bin sat unused until now, it's perfect for onion skin collection.

There isn't a lot of specific information on onion dyeing, I think most people just throw in some skins and hope for the best, but since we are keeping records of everything we are doing, I decided a 1:1 ratio of skins to fiber would be a good place to start- that seems to be at the top of the range and will give us the most saturated color. Next was the issue of mordanting. Onion skins don't require a mordant, but the use of one will give you more colorfast results so I went with a 15% wog alum and 6% wog cream of tarter solution (the cream of tartar acts as an assist and ideally I would have done a batch with and a batch without to judge the results, but time did not allow for that. We might readdress this later in the summer after I collect more skins.)

For the actual extraction, I put the skins in a paint strainer and then large pot of hot water and slowly raised the temperature to the 180-190F, a bit below boiling. Everything I read said to boil the skins, but I am not sure that is good for the color. I have nothing to base this on, but I feel like extracting at the higher temperatures will result in more browning so for this go I decided to keep the temps on the lower side. This might mean that I didn't get as much color and it might result in a different color, that's something I will have to address later in the summer. One last note on the extraction- onion skins smell like onions when you add water (surprise, right?) so they might be best used outside.

I really love these 5 gallon paint strainers, they keep all the little pieces together so that you can pull it all out at once and get straight to the dyeing.

After the extraction, we pulled out the onion skin bag and put another bag in with the yarn- one superwash, one not. We let everything simmer around 180F for about 35 minutes. As expected, Chris's superwash absorbed quite a bit more dye making it a deep rich brown.

Final dry skeins. On the left is the regular wool and on the right is the superwash,.

When we pulled everything out there was still a good amount of dye in the water so we threw in some wet unmordanted fiber to soak it up. The fiber ended up a khaki brown which was a bit blah so we added some iron to the dye water in the last few minutes which shifted the color to a really nice green.

The difference in the two colors is pretty dramatic, hard to believe they came from  the same dyepot.

Next time my plan is to use a .5:1 ratio of skins to fiber, skip the alum mordant, and follow with an iron bath to try and get a nice deep green, we'll see.

Dyeing with marigolds and madder

After the workshop there was some leftover dye stuff that Dagmar let us take. I grabbed a bag of marigold heads and a jug of the madder extract dyebath with a little cochineal mixed in. I took advantage of the recent surge beautiful weather to dye some yarn. My original plan was to use only the marigolds and leave the madder for overdyeing some cotton that I don't like a little later. The dye that comes from the first extraction of the marigold heads is a rich, golden color. I love the color, but decided I wanted to go more orange with this batch so I ended up adding about half of the madder stock to the pot.

On the left is the marigold dye stock and on the right is the marigold with the added madder/cochineal stock.

I mordanted the original skeins in a 15% wog alum bath and let them sit overnight. After I finished, there was still a bit of dye left in the pot so I filled up the rest of the gallon jug that was storing the madder/cochineal dye with some of the leftover stock. I then mordanted another skein in a 15% alum bath and dyed with what was left in the jug giving me a redder orange.

On the left, the marigold with a bit of the madder/cochineal and on the right,  the madder/cochineal with a bit of marigold. 

This weekend, Chris and I are going to try and get some good greens out of red onions skins. Hopefully things will go as planned, I will post about that next week. 

Natural Dyeing: Day Three

All the colors we created over the course of
three days. Pretty impressive, huh?

The third day started with an iron bath for 1/3 of the fibers we already dyed. Iron is interesting, it shifts the color without adding dye, but since Chris and I already experienced the color shifting process the day before by changing the pH on our bath it seemed a little less magical. The iron post bath shifted our colors a bit to the rusty brown side which gave a nice depth to our palette.

After the iron post bath it was time to move on to indigo. Indigo was really the most exciting part of the workshop and of the dyes we used, it is the most complicated and thus tricky to go at on your own. There are two ways to prepare the indigo dye. The first and more traditional method is to create a natural ferment vat which takes 3-10 days to develop. The second method and the one we used is the chemical vat which uses lye and thiourea dioxide to get the same result in a shorter time.

Our indigo solution. The top layer is called indigo blue, it has been oxidized and won't dye. The green layer below is the indigo white which is what you use for dyeing.

Once our indigo was mixed and ready to go we added it to the dyepot and started dyeing. Again, indigo is very sensitive to oxygen so when dyeing you have to take extra precaution not to introduce extra oxygen into the vat. This meant we dyed one at a time and had to be very careful as we removed the fiber from the dyepot. When the fibers first come out of the dyepot they tend to be a greener blue which develops into a darker, truer blue as it combines with the oxygen in the air. Also, instead of changing the solution to get darker colors, with indigo you do multiple dips.

Dagmar carefully removing the first dyed indigo fiber from the vat, notice the greenish color as it comes out of the vat.

After a lesson on properly using the indigo vat we were ready to overdye our skeins from the day before which left us with a beautiful range of blues, purples, and greens that our palette was previously lacking.

All the colors created by the iron post bath and the indigo dip hanging out on the line to dry.

 After the indigo dyeing was complete, it was back to the studio to create labels for all of the colors we made  and to separate and distribute the 900 skeins to the group. In the end we each had the 75 planned skeins along with a few unplanned experimental skeins.

All of our dyed skeins tagged, labeled, and arranged buffet-style.

Natural Dyeing: Day Two

Mordanted yarn waiting to be dyed.

Friday was dye day, all our base yarns were mordanted and ready to go. We did a little math to determine the measurements for our dye solutions and then it was straight to the barn to extract the dyes and start dyeing our fibers. The most important thing I learned about natural dyes was that each one works differently. Some are sensitive to temperature, some are sensitive to oxygen and some, like ours, are highly sensitive to pH levels. Slight variations can give you totally different results so good record keeping is extremely important for replication.

Measuring out the bugs for extracting the dye.

As I mentioned yesterday, Chris and I chose cochineal as our dye matter. For those who don't already know, cochineal is a type of beetle that lives on cactus in South and Central America and produces lots of carminic acid which is used for making the red dye that goes into everything from make-up to M&Ms. Cochineal is a point of debate with vegans and in the past I have avoided it, but when I signed up for this workshop I knew it was one of the materials we would be dealing with and I made the decision to participate at least this once. 

We pulverized the dried beetles in a coffee grinder to make a fine powder.

In the past when I have seen cochineal dyes they have always been in the extract form which is a bright red powder. The cochineal we used for the workshop was in dried beetle form. We measured out the beetles, ground them up in a coffee grinder and extracted the dye on the stove top three times until we had a 15% wog in a 1000mL solution. I won't go into the process, but I will address the smell which was one of the worst things I have ever dealt with. Chris and I had to take turns stirring and breathing and once we were done the smell had permeated our skin, clothing, and hair so much so that we had trouble eating lunch. It was not a pleasant experience.

Between extractions we strained the cochineal through a surgical sponge, resembling a bloody mess and in the end we had 1000mL of dye solution.

Finally, it was time to dye. Cochineal is very sensitive to pH- too much acidity will make the color go warmer and too much alkali will make the color go cooler. For this reason, we used distilled water throughout the entire process to try and control our dye stock. Unfortunately, we still had issue with the color heading into a cooler zone- our lightest version was lavender instead of pink. Chris and I decided to correct this by making a 6% wog solution of cream of tartar and run all of our dyed yarn back through it to warm the color. After we finished (last due to our misadventures in chemistry,) there was still quite a bit of dye left in our pot so both Chris and I decided to mordant some of our own yarn overnight so that we could exhaust the bath the next day.

Marigold heads in the pot. The mesh bag is a 5 gallon paint strainer which makes it easy to remove the flowers from the stock when you are finished. Brilliant.

At the very end of the day, Dagmar pulled out a bag of marigold heads and showed us how to extract the dye from them. If you are looking for an easy dye experience, go for the marigolds. There is no math or chemistry involved and they smell delightful. It was a nice way to finish out the day.

By the end of the second day we had achieved quite a few colors. On the third day we overdyed 1/3 of these with indigo and shifted the color of 1/3 with iron.

Natural Dyeing: Day One

A few months ago, Dianne from Tanglewood Farm mentioned that she was bringing Dagmar Klos, writer of the Dyer's Companion, to her farm to do a workshop on natural dyeing. At the time, I was more interested in sharing the information with my customers who wanted to learn about plant dyes, I had no personal interest in learning what I believed to be such a restrictive method of dyeing. When the workshop was all set up and Dianne sent me the pricing and information on the three-day event- around $200 for three full days of instruction, meals, and 75 mini-skeins of dyed yarn to take home, I couldn't resist signing myself up before passing the information along to my customers (and good thing, the workshop filled fast and ended up with a pretty long waiting list.)

Thursday was the first day of the workshop. We spent the first half of the day in lecture learning about the history of natural dyeing, the materials we were going to use, the different ways of extracting the colors, methods for attaching them to various fibers, the variables that would effect our results, safety guidelines, and resources for further research (being a bit of a bibliophile, I was especially appreciative of the comprehensive bibliography included in our class materials.) Dagmar also pulled out her color wheel of natural dyes and instantly removed any doubt I had about this workshop. In the past when I have looked at natural dyeing methods, the colors always seemed way too dull for my needs. Lots of yellows and browns with lightly saturated versions of other colors, none of which appealed to me. The few brighter, more saturated colors I had seen were achieved using heavy metal mordants which are completely out of the question for me, I would much rather use synthetic dyes that are less damaging to the environment. The colors Dagmar achieved created a full spectrum of tone and hue and without using the heavy metal mordants that I wanted to avoid. Mind blown.

We took a break for lunch and I used this chance to hang out with the cutest gang of alpacas that I have ever seen. After I got my fill of cuteness, I joined the others in the house for lunch. Due to my weird dietary needs, I didn't really expect too much from the meals, which was fine. I got to the kitchen and there was a beautiful spread of fresh veggies and some tomato celery soup from Shaker Town that was among the best soup I have ever had. (The recipe is in their cookbook which I ordered from the library, I plan to make vats and vats of the stuff in the not so distant future.)

After lunch it was back to the studio to sort and bundle the skeins of undyed yarn. There were 12 participants and 75 different colors with 8 color roots so we had to sort 900 mini-skeins into initial groupings of 36 and then the groupings of 36 into groups of 3- it took awhile. After that was finished, we did some math to figure our mordant measurements and then we moved out to the barn to start scouring and mordanting. In the barn, we teamed up and each two person team chose a dye matter to work with. My partner in crime was my friend Chris who yelled out cochineal with the joy and enthusiasm of a five-year-old so thus began our adventures with beetles.

Day 3- Dyeing

Today's project is not very exciting. About a year ago I was given a very large amount of rough yarn that I have been trying to work through. Really this yarn is best suited for rug type projects, but I don't knit rugs so I have been trying to incorporate it into other non-wearable projects.

Here's the yarn, sorry about the picture quality, this shade of green is one of the colors that digital cameras have trouble with so just imagine a mix of bright spring greens with small sections of cooler greens.


For this yarn, I decided to try out my organic-certified dyes and since they dyes were a little more eco-friendly than what I normally use, I also decided to use rain barrel water for the rinse and the dyebath. This is my first summer with rain barrels and I am slightly obsessed with finding as many ways to use the water as possible and since this yarn is to be used for an outdoor project I wasn't too worried about the possibility of a little debris in the dyebath. If I wanted to be really green I would have constructed a solar oven to set the dye instead of using my stove, but I am not quite there, yet. All-in-all everything worked out, but I did end up dyeing the yarn twice because the green dye came out way too blue for my taste. Usually I mix my own colors, but since the dye samples I had came with secondary colors I went ahead and used their green and ended up overdyeing with a yellow to give me more of the color I wanted. I don't want to base my review of these dyes on my experience with the green so I will do some mixing and experimenting with the primary colors and post a review at a later date.

Oh and if you are wondering about the project this yarn is destined for, you will just have to wait until next week when the secret is revealed, hopefully it will be worth the wait.