Dyeing Yarn with Natural Dyes; Logwood and Cutch, Revisited! (Dyepot Weekly 539)

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

I've restocked one of my 2024 Halloween Mystery Yarn bases! The Neon Neps Sock is available again (dyed to order) chemknitscreations.etsy.com/listing/1764758512 🎃🎃

[@FlareHeart]

I LOVE that color from the Logwood. It's such a deep rich shade of purple.

[@louisalowry6229]

Love, love, love the two together - they would make such a great shawl or scarf.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

They are both in the shop now, technically ;)

[@lizbongrav2108]

Love the way these two colours look together - they'd go beautifully in a project.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

The look much better together than I anticipated!

[@lindasyarnbarn5176]

Oh wow!! BOTH of those colors are GORGEOUS!!!!

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

Thank you so much!!

[@ravensnow2931]

The logwood purple is so, so pretty! I think a good experiment with natural dyes would be to test their light fastness against an acid dye of a similar color and intensity. So, if you dyed this sort of eggplant color with acid dyes, divided both it and the logwood one in half, and placed one of each in the same area of your house with naturally varied sunlight (and hid the other two in a dark box), it would be a good visual experiment to see how sturdy the dyes are. You'd be able to compare the acid dye to the natural dye AND to the earlier versions of itself.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

I love this expierment idea, but logistically it would be a challenge in my house to have a good spot in light without it being moved for weeks at a time.

[@ravensnow2931]

@@ChemKnitsTutorials Fair enough!

[@deyaneria]

I love that cutch color.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

Thank you!

[@angelamorrow1675]

Someone has already said goldenrod and I had lovely results. I didn't try to separate it into just the yellow parts of that makes sense. I bundled it up in cheesecloth and throw it into the pot like a giant tea bag. Marigold is gorgeous and again I used it fresh with whole heads (actually I froze some flowers and then did the same). Using fresh materials likely leads to less reproducibility but I have no professional aspirations. You might also be able to get black walnut and you can use them in the "green" form with the fleshy portion over the nut itself. Plus no mordant needed because they have plenty of tannins which act as mordants. I soaked the walnut fruit for multiple days and then strained the solids out and used the dye bath. Black walnut was a very common dye in colonial times since it is easy to use, is a dark color and readily available. Just watch out because they will stain your hand and lots of other things.

[@FireStormReel]

You can get yellow with goldenrod, and you should be able to find a lot of that in New England!

[@michaellawilson3491]

These were lovely!! I would love to see henna or blue Tansey. The tansey might be more experimental, but body art quality henna (not from lush) produces that coppery red and can be tinted different shades with things like hibiscus and coffee. I’m assuming since henna works on hair, it could work well on pure wool

[@jacquelynsmith2351]

I should send you a bunch of rabbit brush. It's EVERYWHERE here, but I'm not sure where it's legal for me to forage. It gets a bright, rich yellow

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

I've never heard of that - i'm off to google it!

[@jacquelynsmith2351]

@@ChemKnitsTutorials it's desert scrub. I've never seen it when I travel outside the intermountain west. I only learned the name a couple years ago from a natural dyer. Before, it was just "that stuff that's everywhere"

[@DAYBROK3]

tansey has a really strong yellow, as do most leaves and bark from pin cherries i think thats what they are and the cherries are a deep purple

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

OoooOO!

[@AmyC-do4eo]

The logwood is fantastic. The cutch reminds me of Jacquard Aztec Gold... Actually, I liked the cutch a bit better once it was dry.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

That purple will never disappoint me!

[@bjchadwick4261]

Depending on the type of soap it may act as a “wetting” agent and helped the dye penetrate. I know a little detergent helps silk absorb water and dyes better.

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

Ooooooo. I hadn't thought too much about that.

[@charlot-temisery]

imagine using both those skeins together in a fairisle pattern

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

They have really nice contrast

[@newmoonjlp]

Do you think all those suds are soap, or could there be some saponins in the cutch bark?

[@ChemKnitsTutorials]

I honestly don't know! I figured there is a small chance of some soap, but I didn't think about the sudsing of the cutch itself.