Monday, March 27, 2017

Over-dyeing with Tansy ragwort


After spinning a couple of skeins of gray romney-alpaca blend yarn, I had a vision of color...dusky golden-olive.  I thought I might be able to achieve this color by over-dyeing my gray with Tansy ragwort.  It was the beginning of autumn, and most of the tansy had died off, however, I spotted a few plants growing alongside the road just outside my neighborhood.  These plants looked like they were still in their prime, so I was sure they would yield plenty of yellow dye.

At home, I simmered the plants for a couple of hours, then strained the plants out, entered my wet skein, and heated to just below a simmer for another couple of hours.  Then left the yarn in the pot over-night while it cooled.

The results were almost what I had envisioned. I do like it, but I was hoping for more of a hint of acid green.  Next time, I may pull the yarn out of the dye bath sooner and see what color I have.

No comments:

Post a Comment