spring forward

Here are a batch of the latest springy colors....the pinkish ones are cashmere/silk, and merino in the semi sanguinea mushrooms, dried then cooked strained and added some ammonia to pink it up...taupe one is eucalyptus cashmere, the silver is baby stinging nettle, which was a surprise, and the orange is the paramelia sulcata lichen found on downed branches, which I soaked, cooked strained and voila...it is a bit less orangy but still a wonderful color...
and now out for another walk to collect, I mean, stroll through the dye shop of mother nature...
It does make walking even more of an adventure, if not a little graspy, as now when I walk everything looks like a potential dye product. The herring are spawning here now, so the sea life, eagles, sea lions etc. are bountiful, and of course there will be nettles, and lichen, and some dyeing later.
Jenny Dean has a great clear, concise, post on mordanting with Alum and it is worth a look, as I have just made a batch of liquid alum and it is so easy...and now I just pour for 400 gm of wool, 400 ml of liquid alum mixture....voila done... do this dones make it quick and doable...here post on it is very clear...i.e. tsp. which I love, and also the post on her dyeing cochineal and logwood is great. She is such an inspiration.