Natural Dye Extracts
Naturally Dyed Merino Tops
Naturally dyeing merino tops before spinning or felting can be a scary undertaking because of the wonderful ability of merino to felt at the slightest provocation.
After simmering for an hour in the mordant and then once more in the dye liquor, even with the most gentle care the delicate fibres have often felted, which is after all why you bought it in the first place, if you are felter.
Our popular spinners and felters kit, does away with the angst attached to producing your own naturally dyed fibres and leaves you free to abandon yourself to Creative Coloration with capital Cs.... moreLogwood and Persian Berry Extracts
Here is a little project using just two natural dye extracts: Logwood and Persian Berries and the 100g of Australian pre-mordanted merino wool, from the Felters and Spinners Kit .
Purple and yellow are complimentary colours so you can't go much wrong really and the different tones and shades naturally produced by natural dyes bring variety and originality.
The bag was first felted and washed, a little local mica and silk gauze were incorporated into the felt to give texture. The bag was then printed with a pattern using the two dyes mixed with a little gum tragacanth. At the same time the remaining pre-mordanted tops and a little silk thread were painted with different variations of the two dyes and all were fixed by steaming. The tops were spun into embroidery thread and plyed to give strength and many different variations of shade. Some was Navajo plyed which later lead to interesting stitch form and texture.... moreCookie A Knit-a-long
Renaissance Dyeing is a sponsor for this months Cookie A, Sock Innovation, Knit-a-long (Kal)
For the month of December (2009) We will be offering a 10% discount for anyone in the Ravelry, Sock Innovation Group.
The prize we are offering for the winner of the Kal is NOT a hank of our naturally plant dyed BFL sock wool but a Natural Dyed Sock Kit.
The winner will receive full instructions on how to use it, which is the equivalent of spending a day here in one of my workshops, without the French bit, unfortunately.... more