Color studies III
Sunday was the first day of my plant-dyeing course at Abundant Yarn. These skeinlets (prickly buckeye fruits for scale) were dyed with cochineal (ground up cactus-eating scale insects, yum yum), osage orange, chamomile, indigo and logwood. This first day was just an introduction to the natural dyes, a chance to practice mixing them and experimenting with color combinations. Over the next two Sundays we’ll each dye about two pounds of yarn - enough for two sweaters - so I’ve been experimenting with the different possibilities. I pulled out these five…
… because they reminded me of the colors Elizabeth Zimmermann describes using for her Chainmail Sweater in the Knitter’s Almanac. I have such tiny quantities of each that I can’t do much more than make a wee swatch for fun, but I’m hoping there’s enough to knit a little pair of wristers using one Chainmail pattern repetition. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I think I’ll do a bunch of the terracotta with different shades of indigo (I should be able to get a very dark blue by handpainting with a thicker indigo mixture), cutch (a mellow creamy buff, like a cocker spaniel), and maybe a little madder/cochineal true red with an eye to a Fair Isle yoke sweater. So can I get you to vote?
Option A: Terracotta body; indigo yoke patterning with red/buff accents.
Option B: Indigo body (perhaps a slightly greener-turquoise shade, if I pre-dye the yarn with pale-yellow myrobalan before it goes in the indigo vat); terracotta/red/buff yoke.
Option C: Suggest your own combination - I’ll have two sweaters’ worth of yarn, after all. I’m open to suggestions for pattern #2 as well.
On your mark, get set, vote!
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 3:10 am
Option B
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 3:18 am
i like option b myself, lol. there’s a lady here who does a lot of natural dyeing, and she says that if you use logwood with water that has a high iron content, it will turn grey. i’ve been tempted to do anexperiment and gather water from different areas and see what they do.
sounds like fun to me!
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 4:04 am
i like B as well. i’ve always been a fan of darker sweaters though!
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 4:44 am
Terracotta body with indigo and buff yoke!
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 5:10 am
I say option B. I think that indigo would be a great shade on you. This dyeing class sounds like SO much fun!!
P.S. Started Wuthering Heights. It’s taking me a while to get used to the excessively long-winded language of Victorian England…
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 6:50 am
I vote for Option A. I think the indigo with red/buff accents on the yoke will really pop against a terracota body.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 6:53 am
I’d go with option B. The colors are gorgeous.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 8:10 am
I vote for option A for YOU because I think it would suit you very well. And it would be nice for autumn. Those colors are all splendid, though! It sounds like you are really enjoying your class.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Option B. Eek — cochineal! I used to see that in strawberry soymilks and some candy…
Those are beautiful colors you’ve got there.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 10:00 am
I like option B. They both sound lovely, but the possibility of the blue/red yoke on the A looking “patriotic” would scare me. I live in fear of being mistaken for a Republican.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 10:52 am
They all turned out to be really rich, beautiful shades, so any combo will probably turn out well. I’m going to vote for option A because I think wearing bright colors in winter helps us ot keep our spirits up.
Posted: October 24th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
I’m SO jealous.
Posted: October 25th, 2006 at 11:14 am
option A is good for fall… option B is good for winter. either way, both combos look great on your tone. either way - you have enough for TWO sweaters, right? ^_~
Posted: October 25th, 2006 at 11:55 am
I vote option B.
PS the ball arrived today…I can’t wait to get back to knitting Suzette but my second thesis (re 1st PhD students thesis) is due next week and I may throw myself out a window first.
Soooo do you want my yorkshire tweed leftovers or a surprise….
Posted: October 25th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Oh my, how fun! I’ve been wanting to work with natural dyes forever. What a cool class. I might be moving to Portland in a few years, so I’m looking forward to all the yarn shops!
Posted: October 25th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
I like A, mainly because the indigo yoke sounds really pretty.
Posted: October 26th, 2006 at 12:25 pm
I’m going for B as well - I love those colors. Is dying with natural dyes much more involved than acid dyes?
Posted: December 11th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
[...] This Yarn Skeinlet color wheel features dyes made of cochineal (ground up cactus-eating scale insects), osage orange, chamomile, indigo and logwood. It was created by Sarah of the Blue Garter blog: [...]
Posted: June 28th, 2008 at 4:33 am
I say option B. I am partial to blue and the colors you dyed would look just lovely with indigo. Can’t wait to see:)
Ang