I suppose it was destined that being a dyer I would eventual be drawn to trying natural dying methods with things I can easily find. Yesterday, was my first attempt at Natural Dying. I'm not very pleased with the results, but I vow to give it a second and probably third and fourth go round too;)
Early in the AM, I set black beans to soak to pull all the dye goodness out of the beans. I've read that the bean should soak over night, but in all honesty, I found that 12 hours was enough to get all the color out of the beans. I know this because the beans are, 24+ hours later, still soaking in the tub and are no longer leaching color.
For the mordant, I started by following a very basic mordant recipe using 10% Alum and 5% Cream of Tartar (sometimes referred to as COT in the natural dying community) of the fiber to be dyed's weight. The yarn I used was a light fingering weight and I used a total of 6 ounces or 200 grams. That means I needed 20 grams of Alum, 10 grams of COT and enough water to completely cover the wool to be mordanted. The mix with wool simmered for 2 hours. Directions were for 90 minutes, but I can be absent minded at times. I want to say right now, that next time I do this, it will be either in the garage or outside as it gave the house a slightly pungent aroma.
After the mordant, the yarn was rinsed and put in the dye bath. From there it was simmered for about 3-4 hours. I was so darn excited as the yarn was turning a beautiful dusty blue color and I had read in the Natural Dying forums on Ravelry that if you let it sit over night there would be more color take up. So, I left the yarn to sit over night in the dye bath. I really wish at this point I had take a picture of the yarn. It was beautiful!
Naturally, I ran down stairs first thing this morning to check my yarn. As I pulled off the lid with child-like anticipation, I was greeted with grey. Not a rich grey, not a pale grey, just grey with a bare hint of green. Really!?! At what point in time did my little gremin hop up on the counter top and mess with what was supposed to be a lovely blue yarn. Grey.
I'm a bit disappointed, but I'm not giving up on natural dying just yet. I have some carrot tops in the fridge just begging to be thrown in the dye pot for the next go round! Keep your fingers crossed we get a color other than grey.
