04.29.07
Natural Dyeing & KCS, etcetera etcetera etcetera…
I blame Yul Brynner for my inability to say “etcetera” just once like a normal person.
First some etcetera:
Ooh, that turned into a bit of a downer, sorry.
Um, here’s something that’s totally boring except for one person:
Knitters Coffee Swap Qs:
1. Whole bean or ground?
whole bean please. We have a grinder and we know how to use it.
2. Fully-loaded or decaf?
Caffeine is my bestestestestestest friend.
3. Regular or flavored?
Regular.
4. How do you drink your coffee?
Usually with 1% milk because it’s what’s in the fridge, but half and half when I’m out and about, black when we’re out.
5. Favorite coffee ever?
Hmmmm…not sure. The Wild Divine roast from a local merchant (Divine Madman Coffee–619-339-5379, they specialise in certified organic, shade grown, fair trade coffee and donate 10% to a local wildlife rescue) sticks out in my mind.
I get a 2 shot 12 oz. mocha in the morning before work because milk+chocolate+caffeine= perfect morning meal. 
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do?
I’m not an expert. I won’t pretend to be some dilettante. But, um, some coffees taste manky, some don’t. I generally like something in the mid category–not french roast, not a mild breakfast type. So, mid acid, mid roast. I’m a moderate in nearly everything.
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee?
I like lemon bars too, good accent, but um, most times it’s a donut or blogs with my coffee. Depends on if it’s a day off or not.
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?
Local roasters rock!
9. Yarn/fiber you love?
It’s possible that I love everything and everyone.
10. Yarn/fiber you hate?
But maybe I hate nylon.
11. What’s on your needles?
A bottom up V-neck stash buster. Wear Everywhere Pullover in linen. Map of the World afghan. Baby socks x 2. Socks for me. Um, there’s more but what, I can’t remember. Ooh, a Sherwood in Pima Silk.
12. Favorite colors?
Blue and green (but not teal ;)) Red and yellow, like flames… Not really keen on pink or purple.
13. Allergies?
Cats (most). That’s about it. I don’t expect I’ll get sent anything dipped in pymethrin, so I figure I don’t need to bring that up.
14. Anything you really love, really don’t like, or just need to get off your chest?
Underpants!
So here’s the natural dyeing thing:
Carrot Tops & Copper Sulfate!
So, I took 3 skeins of the Henry’s Attic Inca Organic Cotton in Ecru, Sage & Desert, weighed them, scoured them (that’s where you fill up a big pot with water and soap and boil the shit out of it, then rinse it. Okay, maybe don’t boil it. Whatever your end purposes speak to) mordanted with alum (5% weight of goods as recommended by Michelle Whipplinger of Earthues for cotton) and eventually got around to getting some carrot tops with which to dye them.
I swung by too early for a farmer’s market in La Mesa, when they were just setting up but asked a vendor if she could save tops for me, so when I came back and bought several bunches I got 3 times more the tops–in fact, I ended up with a 1:1 ratio of WOG (weight of goods) cotton to carrot tops, which was just what I wanted to try.I put half of them in an enamel pot with enough water to cover and put them on high heat. When the carrot tops already in had wilted and browned out, I added more water and more carrot tops.
Eventually, I had something like this:
In smell and color it was just like my dandelion reduction (which I never used and never blogged) so I suspect a similarity of results could be had. A Handbook of Dyes from Natural Materials by Anne Bliss is a great resource–its only drawback is perhaps that it is organised by dyer’s name– not color, material, lightfastness, or whatever criteria might be most important to you.
I love it because it does consider lightfastness and subjects the end products to that objective test. Surprisingly, this is an important end step that many natural dye resources gloss over (or regard seemingly indifferently).
Anyway, it looked like tea when I dipped a cup in.
Alone, carrot tops on a material mordanted with alum make a strong yellow with a very high lightfast rating.
But add copper sulfate (blue vitriol) and you get a green:
Unfortunately, I forgot to document the weight of the blue vitriol/copper sulfate I added. I just poured until I liked the color of the dyepot. D’oh!
Here are the end results, after simmering and cooling, simmering and cooling. (perhaps a two day thing, I let it get hot and simmer for a while, shut it off, went to bed, and later the next day turned it on and up again and let it simmer/boil again and cool off when I had free home time). Sorry, good documentation would have specific times.
I didn’t exhaust the color in the pot. So far, in my experience, that doesn’t seem possible in natural dyes. But I was happy with the color I saw in the pot (my eyes and brain as a dyer have managed to do an automatic adjustment of the number of shades reduced to see the end color between dye pot and dried and expected washed/rinsed product. I am such a schmartypantz.)
So, from the top to the bottom.
Natural white (ecru)
Natural white (ecru) overdyed with carrot tops and copper sulfate
Sage
Sage overdyed with carrot tops and copper sulfate
Desert
Desert overdyed with carrot tops and copper sulfate
I let the dyed goods boil, washed them in a warm water machine with normal detergent, and put them through a hot dryer… I treated them roughly because I want them to be bomb/babyproof.
So, the undyed cotton is softer and more unprocessed than the dyed. But there it is.
And also, to prove I’m still doin’ it:
Here’s 2.1 oz, 184 yards of 2 ply, averages out to 1401 ypp, and sportweight. Corriedale roving from Dove & Jager (sheep names) in Pennsylvania and handpainted by Sue of Love Interwoven. I have no idea what I’m going to do with this but I enjoyed spinning and plying it and that’s what matters.
BTW, Love Interwoven is a new company in San Diego. I love talking to Sue. She’s my new Mary-Kay.
;P
Anyway, she’s become a Louet dealer too and is working on blending custom batts and handpainted rovings. Expect great things to be uploaded soon. But until then…she’s taking phone orders. Her prices are fair for the market, you can call and order yourself some schweet spinning surprises.
Sock Knitter said,
April 30, 2007 at 7:08 am
That’s awesome! I’d like to try natural dyeing sometime, although it might be a while before I figure it out.
And might I say: mmmmmmmm, coffee! I don’t like drinking it, but I *love* the smell of it.
Mary-Kay said,
April 30, 2007 at 8:40 am
What?!?
You can’t replace me!!!!
I’m OUTRAGED!!!!!
ps. coool - WAY cool dying. Miss you my friend… ((((hug)))))
may said,
April 30, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Very cool!!! I’m starting to have a thing for greens, maybe all the red-violetty-pinkyness is getting to me (seriously, like 50% of my stash!…the rest seems to be blue) Oh, and yesterday I stumbled across that lovely South African Fine wool (top? roving? fluff?) I bought from you, and decided not even my two lonely, pathetic, poorly spun skeins can stop me from trying to spin it again! Beautiful, squishy, soft stuff!
Ande said,
April 30, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Love, love, love the pooper pic. Mom had to adopt another dog after I told her you’d never, ever, ever let her have Crivens.
The dyeing is awesome! Carrot tops! Who knew?! Well, you did but…
Heidi said,
April 30, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Wow, awesome greens. And nice tutorial or whatever you want to call it.
Sherwood is in pima silk? Nice! Like buttah! Or a baby’s butt(ah)…
By the way, ignore my crazy e-mails. I should know better than to surf with IE instead of Mozilla. But you should check out the way your site looks in IE just for a laugh.
Dawn ;) said,
April 30, 2007 at 8:50 pm
that is a great pic ~ totally cool. love the dyed yarn too. maybe one day I’ll be able to do that. ;D
thx for the answers ~ I be back soon. have an awesome evening.
Dawn ;) said,
April 30, 2007 at 8:52 pm
ok, so I just read the entire KCS thingy and that last one is a hoot. you go girl! ;D
La said,
May 1, 2007 at 8:56 am
Fond memories of those whom we love and whom we miss always make their way into our thoughts. I didn’t read that so much as a downer, but as a bittersweet memory and tribute to your mom. So please, no need to apologize.
I LOVE the sage & carrot tops! Gorgeous!
La said,
May 1, 2007 at 8:57 am
oh! I’m the same way with the King and I references/ I can’t say “extraordinary” without hearing it in my head in Deborah Kerr’s voice
Amy Boogie said,
May 1, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I keep collecting stuff to do natural dyeing but I never get around to it. I love what you did with the carrot tops. Great color.
Terri said,
May 3, 2007 at 6:41 pm
okay, so the other day when I surfed on by, I had the “load images” disabled on my Firefox because it helps keep my bandwidth down on my “wireless modem” plan. BUT! I didn’t know I was missing such dogly goodness and spectacular yarn. Awesome! I LOVE those dogs.
Hilari said,
May 9, 2007 at 9:04 am
Have you experimented dyeing with Carrot Top? Cuz I’m totally curious about the results.
And Mama Memories are never a downer - they’re always good. Unless she like beat you and made you stand on the corner naked in a pig mask when you were bad. That’s a whole different kettle of fish….