measure-by-measure

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Rest of my first takes on natural dyes from this autumn. It's been a real pain to get a photo accurately showing the real colors, and I still failed, they came out very pale comparing to real life 🥲 I really like how hibiskus flower and oak galls ones turned out though.

It's been really satisfying and I got some pretty interesting colors, but I probably won't redo most of them anytime soon, just bc of the sheer weight of the dyeing material needed proportionally to the weight of wool (for example, I was collecting onion skins for a year and got only enough to dye about 100g of yarn. so). Well, except for goldenrod which is growing everywhere around where I live, and oak galls, because there's just SO. MANY. of them this year.

Dyes used, from left to right:

Top row: (first two) dried hibiskus flower on alum + cream of tartar mordant, goldenrod on alum + cream of tartar mordant, onion skins on alum + cream of tartar mordant, onion skins with alum modifier;

Bottom row: staghorn sumac berries on alum + cream of tartar mordant, tansy with iron modifier, oak galls with iron modifier, dried walnut husks with iron modifier.

All yarn spun by me from mixed wool of Polish sheep breeds.

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HE’S GAY AND FRIENDLY!

From: ‘Home-made Toys’ The Australian Women’s Weekly, 1960s approx.

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Maybe my favorite result from my first attempts at natural dyes this September: goldenrod on alum + cream of tartar mordant. If it turns out the color holds well, I'm definitely going to make more next year, because this shade of yellow is brilliant and goldenrod is abundant and invasive in my neck of the woods.

Yarn was spun by me, from mixed wool of couple of Polish sheep breeds.

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