Dyeing Weekend!

As usual, I forget about the sequence of postings and this should be way down the page as this was Sunday's batch - and the picture was taken in bright sunlight and is a deeper coral red than is shown here.

I was all inspired on Friday when I visited my friend, Christine, who is into natural dyeing - the colors were gorgeous so that is on my list of things to learn about. In the meantime, I have to use up what I have.

This is the result of Saturday's work; I had planned on it being more green but made a mistake because I wanted to dye another batch in red and removed this colorway and left it to cool in a bucket; the lovely soft green with splashes of red leached out into the bottom of the bucket and toned down the clear green. I was worried before it dried that it would be too muddy but it is just much more muted salmon and green. I can't use it for the project I'd planned but I'm sure I'll find something to do with it!

This is the green I was hoping for.

The canning jars worked really nicely as I was able to write on the lid with a Sharpie to identify the color and brand; the jars even come with a great box for storage. You can see the bamboo sticks I used for stirring the initial paste before I added more water, made sure the lid was tight before I shook (just realized that is a funny word!).

I read that some of these dyes will work better than others after being pre-mixed but I'm willing to give it try. I really liked just adding the powdered dye the way I did for Pansies and Hydrangea but some dyes don't dissolve that easily and the pink left a few unwanted specs.