NATURAL DYE DAY

Last week when the girls came here for the afternoon, we dyed with onion skins that Greta had collected from the bottom of the supermarket bin. We used vinegar as a mordant and most of us got a warm orangey-tan color.

This week we used one ounce of alum to a gallon of water to premordant the wool and got a slightly stronger orangey color. We also steeped goldenrod flowers to release the dye and got lovely lemon yellows. Debbie dyed cotton as well as wool and Cyndy dyed some silk. Cyndy dipped some of her goldenrod dyed fiber into the onion skin pot and got variations between the colors.

A very nice surprise was the pleasant fragrance of the goldenrod-dyed wool - - herbal, almost citrusey.

I have been shearing my sheep and washing and dyeing their wool with Jacquard Acid dyes, ready to send out for carding and here are some of the results.