I used yarn dyed with madder root extract and eco-dyed yarn with marigolds. What I love about naturally dyed yarns is that all colours go together; some just pop more than others. Here is red yarn and yarn with yellows and green speckles.
Budding Vines Cowl
I have since soaked and blocked the cowl, and I will show it to you next week. It is notable how blocking a garment can make such a difference to the knitted fabric.
Now I am putting together packets of my dried flowers for you. You watched me plant seeds last spring, water and feed the plants all summer, and then harvest the flowers. Soon you’ll be able to dye with my flowers too. Make sure to subscribe to my website so that you don’t miss more details.
Today the adventure begins to spin up all the fibre I dyed yesterday. So after I dyed up Day 11 of my advent five bits club, I grabbed a decaf coffee and found a cozy corner to sit and spin for a while. My wheel is a Schacht Ladybug wheel that I bought in 2017. She is very reliable and always gets the task at hand done.
Spinning Cheviot
I managed to get one of the “mini tops” spun. This colour is gorgeous in natural light; not as good as the camera. Don’t worry; after I turn all the fibre into yarn, I will take pictures outside where the lighting is best.
I watched a great class by the School of Sweet Georgia on natural dyeing with Fresh Indigo Leaves by Caitlin Ffrench. It made me run out to my garden and try to salvage what I had left as I realized I was underwatering them. It was a great refresher and showed how I could improve on the steps she demonstrated. I highly recommend all of Caitlin’s classes on natural dyeing and the school itself; so many topics to learn in the fibre arts.
Anyway, back to my garden, I went outside and picked off all the dried or damaged leaves, and I got rid of some plants that were crowding them. I also realized something is eating the smaller leaves (the plants are in containers, so I don’t think it is slugs) so if you have any idea, please comment below. Here is a before video, and I’ll post another video in the next post.
Before Photo of Indigo 😳
I also had some leftover dye yesterday, so I plunked in a skein of superwash Corriedale (a fantastic hard-wearing sock yarn). I saw the results last night, and the colour was too light, so I added some madder extract. Let’s see how that turns out tomorrow.
Natural dye on Corriedale
If you know anyone that is wanting to learn to use natural dyes, please share this blog post and remember to subscribe to this website, so you get a notification as to when I post my journey of dyeing and spinning again. Cheers,
My only regret is that I didn’t make more! This Friday, organic sock yarn dyed with flowers from my garden and plant extracts will be available in my Etsy shop.
Here is some sneak peeks into my limited colour ways.
This yarn is superwash with nylon and is certified organic. Perfect for all your sock knitting as it’s fingering weight yarn.
Enter by going to link in profile. Fill out your email address so I can notify you of the random drawing which will be June 17th. No need to like this post but sharing with a friend would be wonderful. 💞 Time of random drawing will be established closer to the date. Open to Canada AND US residents.
