Last August, we had a fiber dyeing day at the farm. All natural dyes...Indigo, goldenrod, onion skins, pokeberry, madder root, annato, osage orange, (maybe others I may have forgotten). There is a little more to dyeing with natural materials than there is with dye powders out of a jar, but the process is enjoyable. In most cases, the plant material(think goldenrod) needs to be heated for a length of time to get the dye material from the plant into the water. Then the plant material is filtered out and the pre-mordanted yarn or fiber can then be immersed into the dye water. I know I am not going into great detail here for this post. Perhaps I will for the dye day we will have in 2015. I mainly just wanted to post some picture highlights from the dye day :)
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| Indigo skeins being rinsed and hung to help get the majority of the water out. |
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| Look at those colors! Almost a rainbow... |
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| The hang out tent for those either done with their dyeing or those who just wanted to enjoy the day with friends but not participate in the dyeing activities... |
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Dyed by D.G., her description as follows... Alpaca fleece, red dyed in Madder, the peachy sort of color was in so many things, trying to get it to take ANY color, that I couldn't begin to reproduce it. The yellow was in the Osage Orange for at least an hour.
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| Alpaca hand combed top that was dyed with Indigo, by D.G.. |
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A mixed basket of natural dyed alpaca in hand combed top form, by D.G.
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| Polworth/Silk blend - dyed in cochineal by D.G. |
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| One participant's(G.M) dye day efforts all spread out in her kitchen to dry! See more below... |
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