Napier II: Yarn old and new

August 6, 2014

Napier's MTG (or Museum, Theatre, Gallery) was a big highlight of our trip, especially an amazing ceramic sculpture exhibition called Mudlark, full of curious animal and part-human figures. And as a pleasant surprise, there was Bach music floating through the building, played by locals on the grand piano upstairs.

We found something really cool in the museum collection too - a display of old plant-dyed wool samples, each carefully labelled with the plant and mordant used. It's really worth a visit, if you're interested in natural dyeing or the history of fibre-crafts. I immediately started plotting a lichen-dyeing experiment...

I want to find a copy of this!

A small part of the 'Home Dyes from NZ Plants' display

Our last stop in Napier before heading home was the Skeinz yarn shop!
Mum and I zoomed around comparing colours and textures, and checking our shopping lists. Meanwhile, Dad took a few photos...

One of the neat things about the shop is the window through to the mill next door, where they spin the yarn:

I bought a big skein of organic merino yarn to dye with lichen, and a few more balls of this and that which I plan to use for new designs. :)

Dyeing with eucalyptus

October 17, 2013

I tried a new thing: dyeing wool using bits of eucalyptus tree. I was prompted to try it by reading that eucalyptus is one of the few natural dyes that don't need a mordant (i.e. an additional chemical) to 'fix' the colour. These no-mordant dyes are called 'substantive' dyes - others include lichen and black tea, both of which I've tried in the past. Also, I read that different varieties of eucalyptus can give different colours. I was hoping for a rich orange, but obviously the tree I selected had other ideas... :p

I didn't need to go far to find my materials, as there's a little huddle of eucalyptus trees across the road from our place, by the train tracks.
Willie and I collected a couple of smallish branches which had blown down in a storm, and I stripped off the leaves and some of the bark.

The trees, with bonus shopping trolley

Hello branches, I have plans for youuu...

A closer look

Flowering tops; twigs and bark; leaves

I based my dyeing method on these instructions. It's kind of a long process, but worth it for an experiment! And simmering eucalyptus leaves smells really nice - it cleared my sinuses pretty well too (much appreciated after putting up with the Flu That Wouldn't Die).

I used 150g leaves/etc for each 50g skein of yarn (which was undyed Vintage Purls Lace). Equal weights of dyestuff to yarn is usually recommended, but I was going for intense colours (hah). I soaked the plant-parts in water overnight, and then brought them to a low simmer before leaving them to steep again for 24 hours.

I decided to try just the pot with the leaves and the one with the flowering tops first, before committing more of my undyed yarn to the experiment. I brought both pots to a low simmer for an hour, and then added a warm, presoaked skein of yarn to each pot. I was extra gentle with the yarn, because it's not superwash and could felt with too much heat and friction. I simmered the yarn-and-eucalyptus soup for another hour, and let the pots cool overnight.

I removed the yarn, picked out the random bits of plant, and let them dry before giving them a rinse and drying again (apparently you can retain more colour that way).

Did I have orange? No, I did not. I had a pleasant-nonetheless warm golden fawn colour. Both skeins looked similar, although the one from the leaves-only pot was less warm-toned. I re-dyed that one darker, using some extra leaves and bark that we collected from a park.

After, and before

I think they look nice together, so I'm going to come up with a two-colour project for them. Something crocheted, perhaps. :)

New pattern: Dyer's Delight

May 4, 2012

My newest scarf pattern, Dyer's Delight, is now available on Ravelry. I designed it in order to show off some really crazy-coloured mini skeins of yarn which I dyed in my kitchen using food colouring. I love playing with colours, and dip-dyeing yarn is easy and lots of fun. I've included instructions in the pattern for anyone who'd like to try it. Leftover yarn in variegated or semi-solid shades would also work really well with this pattern.

I wanted to use the skeins all together without it looking too muddled, and this is what I came up with: each skein in its own column, with a textured chevron stitch pattern to vary the 'pooling' of the colours. The columns are linked with intarsia joins, so the scarf is knit in one piece from end to end.