Mordanting with rhubarb leaves

Last summer I transplanted the rhubarb, using the roots to dye with. This summer I didn't expect to harvest any rhubarb, figuring it would need a season to settle into its new home. Au contraire. It is doing quite well, so I not only harvest leaves to dye with, I made a pie as well.

I had this funny idea that I could dye all the remaining blanks that I have on hand. The only problem with that goal was I didn't have a pot large enough for all the yarn. So first up was the Cascade 220 worsted.

I didn't take a bunch of photos of the process because it's not different than other attempts to mordant and/or dye naturally: soak yarn, simmer dye material, simmer yarn in dye bath, etc. Since rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid, they mordant yarn, but also change the color of the yarn, which can affect subsequent attempts at dyeing. The only differences I noted in the instructions for mordanting vs. dyeing with rhubarb leaves were the ratio of leaves to yarn and the length of time the yarn sits in the bath. I can't quite recall, but I think I used a 1:1 ratio. I do remember that I let the yarn sit overnight in the dye bath, primarily because I had other things to do.

Just for fun, I took pictures with both a white background and a blue background. The actual color of the yarn is more accurate with the blue background.

While the leaves were simmering, they smelled like rhubarb, but later the dye bath took on a peculiar odor that was not very pleasant. Not horrible, but just odd. Sometime soon I will repeat this process with some sock yarn blanks, maybe even tomorrow because it is going to be too hot to be outside.