#Natural Dyes

[rokonrrc2]

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More medieval dyes for y'all!

[kohanakonohana]

新しい着尺を織りはじめました。

I've just started to weave a new kimono fabric.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Child's Sock from Egypt, c.250-350 CE: this colorful sock is nearly 1,700 years old

This sock was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus. It was likely created for a child during the late Roman period, c.250-350 CE.

Similar-looking socks from late antiquity and the early Byzantine period have also been found at several other sites throughout Egypt; these socks often have colorful, striped patterns with divided toes, and they were crafted out of wool using a technique known as nålbinding.

Above: a similar child's sock from Antinoöpolis, c.250-350 CE

The sock depicted above was created during the same period, and it was found in a midden heap (an ancient rubbish pit) in the city of Antinoöpolis. A multispectral imaging analysis of this sock yielded some interesting results back in 2018, as this article explains:

... analysis revealed that the sock contained seven hues of wool yarn woven together in a meticulous, stripy pattern. Just three natural, plant-based dyes—madder roots for red, woad leaves for blue and weld flowers for yellow—were used to create the different color combinations featured on the sock, according to Joanne Dyer, lead author of the study.

In the paper, she and her co-authors explain that the imaging technique also revealed how the colors were mixed to create hues of green, purple and orange: In some cases, fibers of different colors were spun together; in others, individual yarns went through multiple dye baths.

Such intricacy is pretty impressive, considering that the ancient sock is both “tiny” and “fragile."

Given its size and orientation, the researchers believe it may have been worn on a child’s left foot.

Above: another child's sock from Al Fayyum, c.300-500 CE

The ancient Egyptians employed a single-needle looping technique, often referred to as nålbindning, to create their socks. Notably, the approach could be used to separate the big toe and four other toes in the sock—which just may have given life to the ever-controversial socks-and-sandals trend.

Sources & More Info:

Manchester Museum: Child's Sock from Oxyrhynchus

British Museum: Sock from Antinoupolis

Royal Ontario Museum: Sock from Al Fayyum

Smithsonian Magazine: 1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

The Guardian: Imaging Tool Unravels Secrets of Child's Sock from Ancient Egypt

PLOS ONE Journal: A Multispectral Imaging Approach Integrated into the Study of Late Antique Textiles from Egypt

National Museums Scotland: The Lost Sock

[measure-by-measure]

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.

[thedimelion]

The results will be a unique and slightly rustic flag. In general, I want people to be aware of their impact when it comes to buying textiles, and that there is alternatives when wanting new clothing or similarities.

[blue-nebraska]

quilt-inspired barnyard bandanas block printed with natural dyes 🌱 (eucalyptus, madder, and weld)

ID: three photos of bandanas lying on the grass. they are each patterned with quilt squares and prints of strawberries, fish, snakes, and mushrooms, and printed in dark brown, red, and tan.

[comfortabletextiles]

Pland dyeing some SW Merino with black hollyhock flowers

Small test that marinated in the cold dye bath for 1 minute

Yarn was mordanted on 24. November and since then was kept damp

(on the logwood yarn because I want to weave them together)

[innervoiceartblog]

Natural Easter Egg dyes...

[unidentifiedmammal]

Current sample sheets and a couple pics of the liquid i've been using as watercolor, all extracted from purple iris or common violet in slightly different ways, and pH altered to give different colors due to anthocyanins (which i have been reading a bunch about and they ended up being a lot more complex than expected, and deserve their own text-heavy post, this is merely a pretty pictures post to prove i'm alive)

[randomcanfly]

I wanted to say thank you landlady @kohanakonohana for these beautiful hair ties! They're absolutely gorgeous, will share pictures of them in my hair later! She even included this adorable postcard of @straycatj , it's very cute! Everyone go support landlady!

[weavingforlooms]

natural hibiscus dye on a skein of wool!!! loooooook at the coloooooor 🥰 it also smells like rosa jamaica (the drink) which is a pleasant surprise

I had initially dyed this skein with blackberry dye but since I had also eaten most of the blackberries, it wasn’t a very deep dye and so I just over dyed it with hibiscus . I simmered that pot of hibiscus for hours and reduced as much as possible and I am very very happy I spent that time, it was worth it to get this color result !

[sheepyhollows]

The Quilt Collective

[kohanakonohana]

ヌノのとこさわると

たぶん　ちょーおこられるですので

She must be angry if I would touch her fabrics on the loom...

[lichenaday]

Do you know much about dyeing with lichens? I don't know much about it myself but am curious on what the standpoint is from those who study them. Ethical harvesting has been a huge thing I have heard from dyers in what I have seen.

I do know a bit! I got really into collecting lichens for dying, but when it came to the actual dying part I kinda lost my hyperfocus. But everything I learned came from "Lichen Dyes: The New Source Book" by Karen Diadick Casselman, which has a great section on the ethics of harvesting. I try to only collect lichens for dying that:

I can recognize

I know are abundant

are detached from the substrate or are otherwise in danger of being destroyed

are in unprotected areas

I find plenty of material in roadside gutters, in parking lots, on walking trails and sidewalks, on broken or cut branches, at parks and just about every tiny green space around shops and office buildings, etc. etc. I would never advocate for large-scale or commercial harvesting or collection, the impact should be insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and is a great way to learn about and connect with your local lichen species.

[measure-by-measure]

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.

[solar-powered-potato]

Finally finished a shawl I've been working on for about 2 years (on and off - it spent over a year in a box...)

I dyed all the yarn myself using kitchen scraps (rhubarb, spinach, beetroot, cabbage, onion skins and turmeric)