I promised I’d show you some more of my experiments with natural dyeing.
Let me first show you the result and then I’ll tell you how I did it.
Close to my home there are plenty of horse chestnuts. The fresher the husks are the better. I could actually hear – and feel- them drop while I was collecting these.
Let’s number the skeins from left to right.
The recipes are for a skein of 100 grams.
Skein 1 and 2:
-Collection date and place: September 16 near home (center of Belgium); Depending on the time of year and the place, result can be different;
-No mordants;
-Boil 250 grams (skein 1) or 130 grams (skein 2) of husks with 1 table spoon of ammonia for 1h and let it cool down;
-Take the dyeing material out of the bath; that’s not essential for the recipe but I don’t like my yarn to get filled with dyeing material; this could become a problem when the dyeing material is tiny;
-Boil the yarn for 1h in the dye bath and let it cool down;
-Rince the yarn until the water runs clear and let it dry;
-Result: brown-red brick;
Skein 4:
As above except:
-Mordant 15% alun;
-100 grams of husks and no ammonia;
-Result: peach;
Skein 3:
-As skein 4;
-In addition, afterbath with 3 grams of iron;
-Result: teak;
Quite amazing how the same dyestuff can produce such different results! They are all so beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
I agree! It was surprising to see how totally different the outcome can be, even using the same dyestuff. I was really surprised to see the peach color.
Great fun!
These are absolutely stunning. Yours colours are perfect. I love them all, they are so very pretty. π
I keep staring at them, they are really beautiful, and they match perfectly.
Thanks! The outcome was quite surprising, especially for the peach and teak colors. Didn’t expect those, but that’s the whole fun of it!
I absolutely agree. And to get such stunning surprises makes it even nicer. π
Cool! Great colours, you have got very interesting variations from chestnuts.
Yes, surprising, isn’t it! It still feels like magic everytime!
I love your results, I love even more that you used natural products. Every time I see an undyed skein of yarn I think “one day, one day”! I’d love to try this!
I think it’s very rewarding to do something with what nature is giving us.
You should try it too, the fun thing is that you can never go wrong!
Wow, that is very impressive indeed. Thanks for explaining all that!
Fascinating. (And the results are truly beautiful.) I’m really trying to resist learning to spin or dye because knitting/crochet/blogging/life takes up too much time already, so I love enjoying such things vicariously through posts like this. The yarn looks gorgeous in those subtle, natural shades.
I totally understand! Believe me, I wanted to resist too because I just KNEW I would only broaden the yarn/fibre/knitting addiction.
I’m afraid that’s exactly what happened. And sure enough, there’s no stopping now.
Yes, love the colors!
Thank you π
These are gorgeous shades!
Thank you!! I hope to be doing much more.
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Thank you for this wonderful blog post, just what I was looking for. Beautiful pictures!