Monday, January 5, 2009

Natural Acid




Catchy title eh? Of course its all about dyeing and what we have here is natural osage blue face leceister plyed with acid dyed blue face leceister tops....haven't done any acid dyes for about a year but all of a sudden I needed instant vivid colors and that's what I got, but it went so well with the yellow osage that I twisted them up together, sacrilege perhaps, but a wonderful combination...
and for the phaelous schwienitzii, or butt rot as I am apt to call it, just for the shock value, is the green roving...I had saved some young phaeolus
and dried it and so was curious if I could get greens by adding an after dip of iron ...so I used half tsp. of iron and lifted the brown roving out and added the iron and voila sort of khaki, not as nice a green as I have had when dyeing over the fresh phaeolus, (which gives golden color) but definitely khaki /olive green. so now what to do with it....I am spinning more and enjoying the colors and the combining...I also am enjoyed Jenny's Dean's new dyeing book, a must for all of us obsessed dyers, lots of good tips and small and compact for carrying. I love adding to the library of natural dyeing. So tomorrow I will mordant a lot of yarns and prepare to dye with some sanguineas....I can hardly wait....now for some more natural acid.....been there done that...


4 comments:

yarnpiggy said...

Ooooh, I love that olive-y shade! Beautiful!

cedar said...

Thanks yarnpiggy, me too...amazing what a half tsp. of iron will do to a pound of wool...from tan to olive in moments...

Anonymous said...

Nice mix, I love the idea and miss the colors very much.
Frenchette

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

Love the colors you are achieveing Cedar, I'd love to knit with some of that yarn/wool!