My First Natural Dye Day at Home

After that wonderful workshop at MAFA just after July 4th, I shaved the Lilly of the Valley bed and made up a dyepot. Attached is a picture of three batches which came out of the base of Lilly of the Valley. Yarns for 1, 2, and 3 were pre-mordanted with alum and cream of tartar. Batch 2 had cochineal added to it, and 3 had iron added. Some were dipped in an afterbath of ammonia, which deepened color in most cases, and turned one skein yellow.

Then, I was so happy out in my yard cooking up colorful yarn that I cast my eyes about and just couldn't picture any of my other garden plants winding up in the pot. I ran upstairs and ground up 3/4 of a pound of good Latin American coffee, and came up with some wonderful browns. Batch 4 was dipped in ammonia afterbath, and 5 was just the exhaust. You'll notice some are brighter than others, and those are superwash yarns.

I did attach a picture to the former entry where I wrote about the MAFA class with Carol Wood and Debbie McCrea. Check out the samples!