I have a new routine in the morning.
I get up and run a load of laundry first thing. Then I take it outside and hang it on my drying racks in the sun. With the humidity in the summer here in GA, you kinda need lots of time in the sun if you don't have a proper clothesline.
I grew up hanging clothes on a line. It really works pretty well, though clothes tend to come out a little more scratchy than dryer-dried clothes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway...
Challenge #1:
A couple of thing have conspired to get me interested in natural dyeing here lately. Since Queen Anne's Lace is blooming right now, and since I had a skein of white handspun yarn fresh off the bobbin, I decided I'd give that a try. I stopped at the side of the road and snipped about 250 grams of flower heads and brought them home. At home, I chopped them all up and tossed them in a pot full of water and let them simmer for about an hour. After that, I turned off the heat and let the whole mess set on the stove overnight. I decanted off the liquid, and got this:
It looks a little browner here than it did in real life.
My yarn was spun from some Rambouillet wool that my friend Janet gave me back in March. There's about 750 yards here:
I used alum as a mordant, with a bit of cream of tartar as an assist. I simmered the yarn in the mordant for about an hour, then plopped it in the dyebath and simmered for another hour, then let the whole pot sit overnight again. Obviously I have no problem with letting stuff sit around for ages in my house.
Here's what I got:
It's a yellowish green, which was pretty much what I'd expected to get, based on the color descriptions I'd read. I'm not a yellow-hater, so I'm actually pretty pleased with this. If I'd had my wits about me, I'd've thrown some cotton in the pot too, just to see what would happen. But I'm pretty witless lately, alas.
Tomorrow: challenge #2.
I'm not usually fond of yellow.. but that's a very pretty color. I really want to dye some yarn with Tumeric one day because I love the color so much.. I just have to find out what sort of mordent you need to set it.
Posted by: Mouse | June 06, 2008 at 06:04 PM
It's lovely! Nice job!
Posted by: Caroline in NH | June 07, 2008 at 07:42 AM
Oh, I love the smell of line dried cloths. We've been thinking about doing that here but can't quite figure out how to do it without creating an eyesore for the neighbors
Posted by: Debbie | June 08, 2008 at 09:45 AM