My husband and I found ourselves at the Black Sheep Gathering last weekend, where i filled my brain with too much information and my shopping cart with too much roving. Both of these opulences make me very happy. 
Some of the information that is now housed in my brain has to do with natural dying, specifically dying yarn with a type of mushroom, log wood and cochineal (a type of scale insect.) We took a class on Saturday, taught by a woman who has been dying with mushrooms and other natural things for over 10 years. We learned a lot and got to take home some lovely yarn.
Pink: cochineal, Yellow: Dyer’s Polypore (mushroom), Blue: Logwood
I was hoping to learn a little more about different kinds of plants, different kinds of mushrooms, and how to know what plants/bugs/mushrooms are good for dying, but i’m still happy we took this class. Maryka covered all the details of pre and post-mordanting the fiber, and walked us through the entire process from white to dyed yarn. I definitely feel confident that i can follow her directions and dye my own yarns using foraged plants, but will have to do a bit more research on what mushrooms and plants to pick for dying. More information absorption is in my future! I’m really fascinated by dying with natural/foraged materials, and love the subdued colors that result. I can’t wait to cloth myself not only in handspun, hand knit garments, but to have those garments also hand dyed using plants found growing just miles from my house. Cool, right?
Do you dye your own yarn or roving? Do you prefer artificial or natural dyes?
LOVE this idea. We have a local place that does this. I have heard nettles make a nice green and mustard makes a nice yellow. Can’t wait to see what great colors you end up making and what interesting things you find in nature to use!
Yeah, it’s amazing how bright the cochineal turned out. Apparently the British “red” coats were dyed with cochineal. Fascinating. I’m pretty fond of ALL the mushroom colors, and there are tons of dye plants that grow wild around here. Add to foraging a dyer’s garden and i’ll be set! It’s pretty neat: by playing with different pre and post mordants and letting the yarn soak in the dye bath for short to long periods, you can get a myriad of colors from just one dyestuff. I’m stoked.
[...] Saturday, my husband and i took a natural dying class together and learned the basics of mordanting and dying with some plants and mushrooms. [...]
I raise alpacas and use natural dyes exclusively on my wool. I am happy to see more and more people trying it. Also understanding the importance of local wools and supporting fiber farms.
Natural materials are influenced by so many factors— genetics, soil type, weather etc. that colors cannot be replicated exactly from one dye bath to the next. That is one of the things I love— subtle differences but unique colors each time.
Goldenrod is plentiful and makes fabulous, colorfast yellows!
That’s great to know! Do you know if the same applies to Scotch Broom? We have MASSES of that invasive stuff around here.
Find out the latin name– if it genista tinctoria, then yes.
It is hard to know sometimes because common names of plants vary so much regionally. Where are you located? Lots of plants make good yellows— so there most be something that you have around that is plentiful and easily accessible.