Dyeing iron-mordanted yarn in rudbeckia dye bath

One thing I have to say about iron mordanting: DON'T. It takes much less work to do a cool alum mordant and an iron afterbath than to do the iron mordant up front. Also, one has more control of the outcome.

I didn't keep very good notes about this whole dye experiment, nor very many photos. At least the photos I did take have a date-time stamp, so there is a timeline of sorts.

First, I gathered flower heads from Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivanttii 'Goldsturm' growing in the area of my yard I refer to as The Meadow. These I left to soak in water for several days.

Next, I heated the flowerhead bath for an hour or so, to extract the dye and let it cool overnight.

Meanwhile, I mordanted four small skeins of handspun wool singles in an iron bath. Those I rinsed thoroughly, as iron can be hard on fiber.

Over the next several days, I added a skein to the dye bath, heated the dye bath for an our or so, then let it cool before removing the yarn. I processed one skein at a time, hoping to gain variations in the depth of color. It didn't work like I expected - all I got was dark gray with little variation. I finished by dyeing a skein of rhubarb leaf mordanted Cascade 220.

The handspun singles all look about the same, even the ones that were put into an "exhausted" dye bath. The skein of Cascade 220 that was not iron-mordanted but mordanted with rhubarb leaf came out dull, which I suspect is an aspect of the rhubarb leaf mordant. At least it looks different from the others.

So what did I do wrong? For one thing, I neglected to weigh the plant material, to get an idea of just how much yarn could be dyed with it. Mordanting the yarn with iron I believe corrupted the dye bath, so I ended up with dark gray yarn instead of the dark green I was aiming for. I was not careful, nor did I take my time and plan things out before hand. Hopefully, lessons learned!

What was the plan?

While clearing off one of the (MANY) horizontal surfaces in my home that accumulate junk, I found a bag from Joann with some doodads in it: a dozen buttons, some Czech beads, beading needles, and needle threaders. The receipt was from February 2024, and there is a blog entry that shows the buttons (they were for the Lempi sweater, which has different buttons on it), but the rest is a mystery.

Knitting: My SO's socks are about half-done, turning heels.
Spinning: Still working on the Romney.
Weaving: *Trying* to get the 24" Ashford rigid heddle loom warped.

When I was working, I'd get home too tired to do much of anything. To counter that, I started getting up earlier so I could spend some time doing things I wanted to do, usually involving fiber. (It helped to be a morning person.) I find myself in a similar situation now: I sleep until whenever, read the news and do some puzzles while drinking tea, walk the dog... and suddenly it is almost time for lunch. So now I am making a point of getting up earlier and spinning while I drink my tea and listen to Morning Edition on NPR. It's a much more pleasant way to start the day.

Inventory woes

My first attempt at taking inventory of my handspun left me feeling overwhelmed and discouraged. The shelf I chose to start with contained a lot of my early spinning, kindly described as "art yarn", and I couldn't decide what to do with it. It will probably go into a bag for now while I continue with the rest.

My idea of choosing yarn first, then a pattern, is not working out very well, either. Some of the handspun still feels too precious to use. I need to learn to "kill my darlings".

Dyeing: Still working through documenting my efforts; wish I had kept better notes.
Knitting: Finished the bathroom rug; separate post to follow. My SO's socks are coming along. And I purchased some DK sock yarn from Simply Socks for my son's socks.
Spinning: Plied more of the Romney.

On a brighter note, the recent program for the spinning guild provided a hands-on opportunity to use a blending board and create rolags. I was aiming for koi colors, but they look more like bees.

I sold my blending board to a fiber friend a while ago, and for a moment that night regretted it. But I have a small drum carder and some hand cards, so I'm not totally bereft or without tools. The spinning guild has a spinning wheel we rent to beginners; perhaps someone would donate a blending board for the same purpose.

Ice dyeing with Kool-Aid

Rule #1: Wear gloves!

I became interested in ice dyeing after a presentation at the weaving guild by our resident expert. I am no expert, but it seems like part of the magic is getting colors in a dye to separate.

The simplest yarn dyeing I have found is with Kool-Aid (plain - without sweetener). The citric acid in the powder acts as a mordant for the food coloring. Some of the flavors are made up of a single color, so if you want to see colors separate, read the packages to make sure there is more than one color.

I've tried Kool-Aid dyeing with only wool, but I assume it will work with any protein fiber. As far as I know, it won't work with plant fibers like cotton, but perhaps after treating the cloth with soda ash? Verification of this concept is left to the student.

The yarn I chose for the first batch was some from an estate sale, of unknown source; it may even be handspun. I soaked it in water initially, to help with the absorbtion of the color. I laid it in a sieve so that it would not be resting in the melted dye bath.

Instead of covering the yarn with ice, then sprinkling Kool-Aid on the ice, I made ice cubes from barely diluted Kool-Aid.

I neglected to weigh the yarn and calculate just how much Kool-Aid I should use, so the colors are rather pale.

But the Grape colors - red and blue - did separate.

The Black Cherry Kool-Aid cubes went after the Grape. Black Cherry also consists of red and blue, but red (which is listed earlier on the ingredient list) is much more prominent.

The final step was to put the finished yarn inside a ziplock bag (leaving the bag open a bit to let steam escape) and zapping it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, turning the bag over halfway through.

While the colors are not vibrant, I like how they turned out.

What would one call this colorway? 'Muted Fruit Cocktail'?

So after Grape and Black Cherry came Orange and Lemonade. Orange is made up of red and yellow, the Lemonade is just yellow.

This time I used some commercial yarn, Hayfield Natural Wool DK, about 50g, divided into two smaller skeins. Again, I soaked it beforehand. One skein went into the sieve.

Since some of the dye in the first experiment ran through the yarn, leaving a puddle in the bowl below the sieve, I placed the other skein in the bowl to catch the excess color. It didn't work out quite like I expected.

By now I was out of Kool-Aid ice cubes, so I placed plain ice cubes on top of the yarn in the sieve and sprinkled them with the powdered Orange Kool-Aid. A package of Lemonade went into the bowl. Each skein was placed in a ziplock bag and zapped in the microwave for a minute.

What would you call these colorways? 'Koi 1' and 'Koi 2'? I think they would pair well with black.

Be aware that the yarn will smell like Kool-Aid once dyeing is complete. After rinsing the yarn in cold water, I made up a cold water bath using Unicorn Fibre Fibre Wash, to get the smell out.

I still have a package of Lemonade Kool-Aid, so I may dye another small skein with that at some later date, as a companion to the above skeins.

A little freak-out

I've been organizing an event for Spinning and Weaving Week, choosing to demonstrate at a local farmers market instead of the library. (More traffic.) But then I read that the market is no longer.

Well, it turns out that wasn't exactly correct. The farmers market is being "rebranded", so all that is changing is its name and who is in charge at the upper levels. The staff is the same, the place is the same, the day and time is the same. With less than a month to go, I'm glad that I won't have to scramble for a venue.

Dyeing: Managed to get all the skeins off the line in the laundry room, so hopefully posts will follow.
Knitting: The daughter-in-law socks are done; separate post to follow. I gave up on the socks I was going to knit my son because 80 stitches per round?!? Too much. I will purchase some DK sock yarn for his. Meanwhile, I started a pair for my SO.

More knitting: As if I don't have enough to do, I started knitting a round fuzzy cotton bathroom rug. It's mindless knitting, and almost done.

Spinning: I went to a spin-in on Saturday, but took some merino-alpaca roving that is shades of blue, to give myself a break from that white Romney. And I bought MORE roving: Polish merino "premiere" in 'Orchid'.

My latest brainstorm for getting the stash under control (other than to just stop buying fiber!) is to take inventory so I know just what I have and how much. Then maybe I can follow through on my idea of finding projects to suit the yarn I have instead of always buying more. That will be a big ask/task.

Wool season approaches

Consiously or unconsciously, I tend to knit with cotton during the warmer months. It's tough on my wrists and finger joints, so I'm glad to leave those projects behind for some wool. And I'm looking forward to wearing wool, too.

Since I follow Purl Soho on Instagram, I get exposed to lots of pattern ideas, including some from new-to-me sources. My latest "find" is Laine Publishing. I'm particularly interested in this sweater:

So I bit the bullet and ordered the issue that includes this pattern.

Dyeing: I wrapped up both the amaranth dyeing and the rudbeckia dyeing this past week; separate posts to follow.
Knitting: The daughter-in-law's socks are done but for the weaving of the ends and blocking. My son's have half a toe started.
Spinning: I'm back to spinning the Romulan Romney, having completed the last batch of plying; I'm getting tired of the white, but am in the final third of the roving.

This past week, my SO and I visited the Orchard Gallery to meet and listen to the featured artist. Dawn Gerardot's work is primarily what I will call "art quilts". (Alas, she has no online presence.) Her works and her talk were very inspiring and informative. Only one of my fiber friends came, but the local quilt guild showed up in force. That is another whole fiber-oriented area that I choose to avoid, but I did come away with some ideas.

Kit & Caboodle tote

This project exercised my brain a bit. A comment about there being barely enough yarn from two skeins encouraged me to purchase an extra skein, which came in useful for swatching so I could practice the one-step provisional cast-on and the right- and left-twist stitches.

Project: Kit & Caboodle tote from Purl Soho
Yarn: Purl Soho Sunshower Cotton, in 'Bright Watermelon'
Needles: US8
Modifications: None.

The pattern is very easy to understand, even the attached i-cord instructions. There are alternative instructions if you just don't want to try the one-step provisional cast-on, and there is an online tutorial at Purl Soho if you do.

My only reservation is if the i-cord straps will be sturdy enough or will they stretch? Ditto the fabric. A few items seem okay, though. It would definitely work as a project bag.

I blocked the tote in hot tap water, then ran it through the dryer. It came out still damp and took *forever* to air dry.