Favourite free dyestuff

[snapdragon]

Onion skins
Just done a few skeins of rug wool.
Now I must admit a colour I love is burnt sienna and onion skins seem to give similar ranges of colour on wool (no mordant)
Simmered for longer/shorter, new dyebath, exhaust dyebath, strung on a stick over the dyebath to give two tone, last two are sitting in there till it cools.
I didn't add vinegar this time and missed the orangey shade that comes with that, but I did try an iron 'dip' (steeped a rusty exhaust clamp that came off the bike) - obviously I need to read up on that 'cos nothing happened.
Next I'll be peeling some Mahonia trimmings to try and get some greens or greeny yellows

Anyone else have a fave?

[Berti]

ahhh.........how could I have missed this one?

you can dye with dahlia's, depending whether you use the flours or the stems and leaves you get different colors.
goldenrod gives yellows as do marigolds, the latter have a different yellow again
comfrey gives really nice greens
birch peels (the skinny curls) and the leaves both give different colors
chopped small fruitwood like pear/ apple I don't remember but I thought it was pinkish.

for most dyeing it's important you premordant the yarn and depending on what kind of fibers you need a different mordant.
for wool you use alum and for cotton I would have to look it up as I never use that.

there are some nice books about, a good one is wild color/ colour by jenny dean as she does the more common dyes you can find around.
berti

[red]

Jenny Dean has a blognow btw


we have been saving onion skins for well over a year.. be doing some dyeing with that soon

we tried woad.. that was fun

[snapdragon]

I seem to have murdered my comfrey plant - would have liked to have tried that Berti
Mahonia inner bark is steeping :) I got some nice greeny yellows from a much smaller amount previously so am hoping for a little stronger this time - and I have another jug with some snipped up twigs from a cherry in the garden (supposed to be a pink as you say)
oops - I just discovered that I do have 'the craft of natural dyeing' by Jenny Dean - see thats what happens when you try and tidy up - things get lost I'm going to have to buy some Alum to follow her recipes. I find the woolgatherers booklets easier, though not as pretty.
Lol Red - seems to me that you need much more space than my tiny back yard in order to dye with woad

[Berti]

red, thanks for kicking me in the direction of jenny deans blog, I have bookmarked it now :)

snapdragon, when you start dyeing with the cherry wood (I did NOT say cherry but pear / apple but you can always try!) use equal weight of wood/ wool.
if I remember properly (just painted the stairs so cannot go upstairs to look) you don't need to mordant before using fruitwoods.

also, when you want nice greens, when you have dyed something yellow, then use an after mordant bath of iron sulphate.
normally I would recommend to almost always premordant with alum first, a lot of dyestuffs won't be lightfast otherwise.

comfrey is easily found out in the fields........it is a weed, you know ;) not something you might want to have in the garden, it spreads like a pest.

and you HAVE to have PRETTY books......... :D they inspire you to go out and dye!!! my favorite one is trudy van stralen's Indigo Madder, Marigold for the moment.

[Moonwaves]

Natural dying is one of those things I have stored away in the back of my mind to learn more about when I have the time (not to mention when I might actually have something that needed dying). Using walnut skins (I think that's what you call it - the black stuff that gets all over your hands if you pick walnuts, it's sort of outside the shells) is supposed to give wonderful brown shades. And given the state of my hands and all available surface and implements on the few occasions I've cooked beets I would imagine you could get some stunning pink colours using them somehow.