Natural dyeing recipe
Natural dyeing -basic recipe.
August 30th, 2006 at 10:09 am (dyeing)
Lolly made a comment on my natural dying, so here follows a recipe I have from a pamphlet written by “Lotte Nielsen” called : “Natural dying for children and adults”.
First all yarn/fibers has to be open to receive the color. This is done with a mordant called Alum . Pr. 100gram /3.5 ounces of yarn 0.7 ounces/20grams of alum is needed.
The yarn needs to be in skeins, loosely tied,to prevent tangling when stirring the bath. Presoak yarn in lukewarm water while preparing the mordant bath. Desolve the alum in ½ liter/0.88 pints of boiling water. Fill your dyepot (preferably steele) with cold water. Add the mordant solution and the slightly wrung yarn. Heat until 90 C/194 F, keep it here for about 1 hour. Turn of and let cool. (night over, perhaps?) Rinse. Now you have yarn ready for coloring with plants.
Now you have to gather plants
These are the most used (throughout the centuries) (all these will give yellow) :
You`ll need 4 times as many fresh plants as you have yarn (or 2 times dried.) Greenish colors can be accomplished by coloring on grey yarn, using a copper or iron dyepot. Brown can be obtained using green walnut husks or bark from various trees (mainly fruit-trees.) Bark doesn´t need mordant as it contains Tannin . You might want to experiment with lichen……..
The dye bath:
Fill your dyepot with cold water. Add plants. Add yarn. Raise temperature slowly til 90C/194F (do not boil). Keep it here for approx. 1 hour. Leave to cool. Wring the skeins and rinse in lukewarm water,adding vineager in the last rinse.Hang in shade to dry.
Now you´ll have your own natural dyed yarn. Other colors are more complicated,and to help me with these I´m a member of Natural Dyes .
Dye happy….go experiment…..
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