Spinning and natural dyeing

Some of what I have been spinning recently.

Two bobbins done of Mongol Kargul wool. I have spun it as quite a thick single. I want it to look rustic/slubby.

And this is a lovely spin. It just flows through my fingers! Beautiful organic creamy white Welsh Lleln. I have two fleeces of this beautiful wool which I sourced from the neighbouring organic farm.

I dyed two batches of wool tops. The orange from madder root and the creamy colour is actually pale yellow and I used privet for that. We trimmed a hedge in our garden and we had so many leaf cuttings I thought I might as well try to dye with it. Glad I gave it a go! Next time we mow the lawn, I am going to try dyeing with grass cuttings.

Blossoms, spinning and dyeing

I want to add lots of blossom pictures from all around our garden simply because these blossoms fill my heart with such joy and it makes me feel happy seeing them here!  I want to remember them because they are already starting to pass over and green leaves are appearing so quickly.  We are having petal snow.  I love seeing the children play amongst all those falling petals and see the soft carpet of petals across the grass.

And some spinning that has been done.  At the back, grey/black Jacob plied with white and in the front, dark brown Shetland plied with white.

Some of my handspun yarn that I naturally dyed.  For the bright yellow I used onion skins and for the pale yellow I used nettles.

Dandelion learning

We've done lots of dandelion focussed activities recently.

Our Gnome Multiply was busily rushing about collecting and multiplying the number of dandelions we collected.



We used those dandelions to make dandelion biscuits (look here for a recipe) and dandelion tea. (Steep flower heads in boiling water and then drink and enjoy).



We collected up lots and lots and lots of dandelion flowers and dyed wool. It turned out a gentle yellow. The picture doesn't do it justice - it's more yellow than it looks here, a lovely colour.



I stumbled upon this great experiment here to make dandelion spirals with dandelion stems by splitting the stems and adding them to a bowl of water. We loved this and walked about the fields with a bucket of water making dandelion stem spirals as we went along. The boys do this frequently now, it's such fun to watch the stems spiral! Do try it if you have dandelions about.

Naturally dyed wool and silk

We did a few batches of natural dyeing recently.  I spun the wool myself and the wool is Portland, an English rare breed.  We also dyed a few silk squares which my friend Sarah sourced for me.

This is my favourite.  Beautiful orange and the peachy shades to use up the dye.  From beetroot - whole plants chopped up.  We used alum as the mordant.

Yellows from lots and lots and lots of stinging nettles.  Mordant - alum.

The greens and blues and lilacs here are from natural food dye with alum as mordant again.

It is great fun experimenting with natural dyes and to see what colours we end up with.

Dyeing raw wool with natural dyes

Some of the natural dyes I have been experimenting with - stinging nettle, privet, granadilla skins, rosehips, carrot tops, tea and purple cabbage.  Next will be hawthorn berries if I get around to picking them.