Tea-time: Dyeing with Flowers from Our Dye Garden

If you have been with me for the past few months, you may remember this:

Adrienne and I planted this dye garden from seed (organic) this past Summer. I harvested flowers almost every day and filled the freezer with petals and stalks. Adrienne was taking a horticulture class at the local JC. For her final project, she decided to document the dye garden, starting from the planting of the seeds, and finishing with making tea from the flowers and dyeing wool.

Wool: Bluefaced Leicester
Qty: 2 oz per dye
Mordant: 12% Alum, 6% Cream of Tartar
Dye Qty: 2oz of dried/frozen material

First, we mordanted the wool with alum and cream of tartar for one hour. We let the wool sit in the mordant over night to cool. Then, we lightly rinsed the wool in a lukewarm bath.


We made teas out of each type of plant:


(this is making me feel like Ina Garten -- and want to speak in a hushed tone -- "come and look a little closer" -- and then the camera zooms in to see what she is cooking)
1. Edible Chrysanthemum


2. Correopsis


3. Cosmos


4. Dahlia


(this is the part in the show, where I find myself starving, and for a minute I actually think about cooking something real to eat, but instead, after exhausting myself thinking about all of the steps necessary to have such a dinner, I grab a bag of potato chips and sit back on the couch, and wish that someone else, such as Ina, could cook for me)

Round 2: For this round, we took plants growing around our house.


1. Birch


2. Chestnut Hulls


3. Eucalyptus


4. Ivy (leaves and berries)


We simmered the tea for about 1+hour. Until the dahlias lost their color, and the eucalyptus nearly asphyxiated us. Turned off the heat, allowed the tea to cool a bit.



Now, it was time for dyeing, my favorite part. We took a large canning pot, and 8 wide mouthed mason jars. Filled each jar 2/3 full with tea, and then dunked a 2oz piece of bfl wool. Placed the jar in the pot, loosely capped the jars, turned the heat onto med-low, and simmered the pot's contents for over an hour.

Our results:

From left to right: ivy, eucalyptus, dahlia, cosmos, correopsis, chrysanthemum, chestnut hulls, birch (when taking this photograph, I was having a momentary lapse of dyslexia). A lot of yellow, eh? I suppose it is amazing how many different shades and tones of a single color the human eye can see.

Next project: Over-dying with indigo. I will bring more green into my collection!

Fiber Crazy at Camp Vejar

We've had a very exciting week over here at Camp Vejar. We built a mini-sweatshop. About two weeks ago, our friends Maia and Brooke offered us the opportunity to sell our fiber and yarn in their booth, Sincere Sheep, at California Wool and Fiber. This festival takes place in Boonville which is about 2 1/2 hours north of here. As to be expected, I was delighted and accepted their offer without much thought. Well, I have this part of my personality which goes into overdrive. Some may call it ambitious. I guess therapists may call it compulsive. Anyway, before I know it, I am in the midst of mordanting about 20 lbs of wool. The kitchen is completely trashed with dyes and pots and wet wool. The bathtub too. Adrienne is really an angel. It was kind of like camping but in our house.

The highlight of the week, after 8 days of straight dyeing, came when Adrienne took the bread out of the fridge to make toast, and said "Gee honey, there's even cochineal on the bag of bread". I, in the midst of dyeing, glance briefly over my shoulder, and say "um yeah". Thinking that it is like a drip or something and that she is overreacting. She puts the bread back in the fridge. A few minutes later I go open the fridge to look for some OJ. And, find "the accident".

I had made a titration of cochineal (beetlejuice), poured it into a Ball jar, and placed at the back of the fridge. For some strange reason, the fridge froze the cochineal, turned it into a cochineal icecube, which cracked the glass, and cochineal was _all_ over the fridge. Including in the veggie drawers, under the veggie drawers, etc. There really was cochineal all over the bread.

Point being, we accomplished alot. Here, is a glimpse of the work table.


I have to say I am really proud of our work. Michelle - thank you for helping me out!

70 Alpaca/ 30 Silk. Yarn perfect for shawl lovers. I did not want to part with this yarn.


Superwash Merino Sock Yarn in colorways Kyoto, the Revolution, and Trixie.


Bluefaced Leicester Sock Yarn -- sorry about the poor quality photo.


Wish these kids luck in the world, may they be beautiful socks, scarves, shawls, etc.

Out in the garden, we have more exciting things happening. Dye plants are growing like weeds! I love them. They are so beautiful.


Dyer's Coreopsis

Cosmos

Shungiku Edible Chrysanthemum

Adrienne is taking 2 horticulture classes. One of them is about building a greenhouse. And, she is going to grow another dye garden at school. Hopefully, in the next couple weeks, we will have some yarn and fiber dyed from our garden to share with you.

Today's Verbs: Weaving and Growing Dye Plants

I am sssooo happy. My dye garden is really taking off. Finally, we are seeing our first cosmos, dahlias, and chrysanthemums. Now, we are only waiting on the correopsis.


All three types of flowers will yield a range of yellows, oranges, and rusts depending upon the mordanting process. We plan on experimenting quite a bit, so, hopefully, we will end up with samples reflecting this range.

Otherwise, Adrienne and I began our weaving project. Adrienne works at the SFMOMA and they have an employee art show, so, we decided to a collaboration. She names the project "Tilth" which means healthy soil -- something Adrienne is rather obsessive about. We are planning on using a bunch of Habu that I picked up at Stitches 2005. And, we are going to drop spin some of the Shetland guard hairs from our fleeces that we bought at the BSG. Stay tuned! We plan to incorporate a little knitting -- to add a 3D feel.

Here's Adrienne hard at work!