Friday Fiber Arts: Plant Dyeing and Mordant Part 1

Yesterday I added some really beautiful plant dyed skeins to my etsy store. These skeins were dyed in the fall when walnut husks were plentiful. I gathered up a big bucket of walnuts from a tree at my neighbor's house. I filled the bucket with water and let the husks soak for 2 days. I drained the dye bath off and set the walnuts aside. Meanwhile I prepared my fiber. I had a couple of skeins that I first weighed and then presoaked for about 15 minutes in room temperature water. Please be sure that your skeins are tied in at least 5 places. I learned the hard way. I had a skein tangled up so badly that it is still sitting on a shelf waiting for me to fix.
While your skeins are soaking you can prepare the mordant. I use only alum and cream of tartar as my mordant. I use 10% alum and 5% cream of tartar to the weight of the fiber. Fill a large pot that is used only for dyeing purposes. Stainless steel or enamel are both good choices. Remember any utensil that you use for dyeing should be labelled and used only for dye and never for food preparation. I fill the pot with water and heat it up. Add the alum/c of tartar once the water is hot and stir so that it is evenly distributed in the bath. Remove your skeins from the presoak bath and gently squeeze the excess water out.Add the wool into the mordant bath--careful to prevent felting. Make sure fiber is completely covered by water.Simmer the mordant mixture for about 1 hour at 160F. I turn off the heat and let the fiber sit until it is cooler. I then remove it by grabbing the ties on the skein. If it is tangled you can dip it back it in the water a few times. This usually straightens out the fibers. Again gently squeeze out the excess water and you can either begin to dye or let it dry on a drying rack and save until you are ready to use.
Just a few more notes: I always dye outside when using plant dyes. And I use a propane burner as my heat source. Don't forget heavy duty rubber gloves to protect your hands.
I will post the walnut dyeing process tomorrow!

Check out these sites for more Fiber Arts: http://wonderwhyalpacafarm.blogspot.com and http://naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ Sorry my computer is being silly and I cannot add any urls. Working on this problem.