Happy St. Patricks Day; a natural rainbow dye tutorial

When I was very small I used to say that Rainbow was my favorite color. 

Or depending on how I felt, I'd also say Clear. 

I was fascinated with both features that I found in my paint box, my barbies' clothes, my Rainbow Bright doll and the stuffed butterfly I had. 

Also since I was small, I always associated rainbows with Ireland and Ireland with rainbows. 

The first time I actually saw a rainbow in Ireland,

 I was experiencing The Burren for the first. 

Seeing those magical colors soar up and through the grey blue sky over Kinvara, 

the world around me was illuminated even further. 

Standing at Dunguaire Castle with the other tourists, 

gazing out over Galway Bay's low tide. 

I swear the seaweed rose up and sang with happiness because it was practically glowing. 

Sigh... I knew I was destined to return to that area. 

And I did 3 more times.

But more on that later. 

One day last week, I played around with color blending with my natural dye powders 

to create a rainbow self striping yarn for one of my up coming 

classes- 

Natural Dyeing for Knitters.

And a sampling of the rainbow spectrum

using only 3 dye pots that featured the 3 primary colors. 

I used:

indigo

madder root

and 

osage orange

After I dyed up my samples for the knitting class example Judy has made,

I played around with creating a rainbow self striping skien. 

I love how it turned out! 

I'll try and lay out the basic movements I did to achieve the secondary colors.

for the rainbow skien:

Pictures it: your yarn wrapped in a skein. Eyeball it in thirds. 

Start with indigo 

(because in my experience with the vat I have going- it has rite color remover in it which is the same as theoria dioxide- If I dye fiber in another color first and then dip in this indigo vat- it strips the color and then adds indigo.... not my idea of a good time)

So with that said- I always dye with indigo first. 

I dipped a third of my skein in this first. 

I left it for about 15 minutes. 

I pulled it out holding it with the blue downwards and let it drip in the pot for a few minutes as it oxidized from white to yellow to green to blue.

I then gently squeezed the yarn so it wouldn't drip in the next pot. 

I then placed another third in the madder root pot AND set up another small pot right next to the burner with a jar inside- just trying to create a sort of stand. You can use anything though. 

It's important to let the yarn NOT in the dye pot be higher up than what is in the dye pot. 

Otherwise, water will travel up the yarn and find the outlet, pouring all over your stove. 

I also let 1/3 of the blue soak in the madder bath to create purple. 

I had let the yarn sit in the madder for about 20-30 minutes before I pulled it out. 

Again, I gently squeezed only enough to not let it seep into the osage which was my next step.

With the osage, I dipped both the remaining undyed 1/3 AND 1/3 of the other end of the blue- to make green and 1/3 of the madder that was right next to the osage into the osage to create orange. 

One might think this takes a bit of math- but I like to think it takes visualization.

When all is said and done with this dyeing portion, you will end up with;

1/6 red- (madder root)

1/6 orange (osage + madder)

1/6 yellow (osage)

1/6 green (osage + indigo)

1/6 blue (indigo)

1/6 purple (indigo + madder)

You can use many other blending variations to achieve the tones that you like most. 

I'm excited to continue my experimenting with these pigments. 

Many of these results will be for sale in my etsy shop. For example :) 

Alternatively, if you want to create a single color like green, orange or purple with your natural dyes,

follow the color combos above or create your own with whatever makes those same colors. 

For example, you could use indigo + fustic to create green. 

Logwood grey + osage or fustic to create green, 

and so on. 

As far as that magical rainbow skein, I re-skeined it to shuffle my colors:) 

A fun trick to apply to any of your hand painted, dip, space, or vat dyed yarns. 

Thanks for reading and please let me know if you have any questions or comments by leaving a comment here. 

I love hearing from you. 

Sláinte!

Thank you 2013

I have always loved calendars. I love picking one out each year. Writing special events and appointments down, I keep it in a spot I will always notice. A few years ago I started a New Year's Eve tradition: I take down my calendar and go over the year just lived. And this year, 2013, was one for the books. I don't think I've had so much excitement, or extended my family, and felt so loved as I have in this year.

January~ As Jubal and I continued to plan our wedding, I also worked on dye samples, new yarns, and figuring out how to build up my Etsy shop from part-time to full-time. And it was during this month that I was given a tremendous opportunity to teach at Squam Artworkshops :: Taproot Gathering that took place this past September. The year certainly started off with a bang.

     

February~ More wedding planning took place, and I became most obsessed with wedding flowers and table settings. I always knew the obsession would kick in, but I tried hard to keep it at bay. Then it was all I could think about. Pretty boring for anyone who had spent time with me, as all I had were flowers on the brain. We did take some time away from the Maine winter too, and I traveled with Jubal to his hometown in California to see his family and so he could attend a work training. Spending time in the Bay Area and with his family is always such a treat, and I know I am so lucky to be able to do this. 

  

March~  Became a bit of a flurry of shopping, meeting with wedding vendors, packing for a three-month trip, and checking out. Sweet, sweet bliss mixed with excitement for the coming month, mixed with anxiety about the Big Day and our crazy retreat. It was also a month of parties, get-togethers, last days at my part-time job, birthday dinners, and such an unreal feeling.

   

April~ The first of April started with celebration of welcoming family and friends as they trickled in from all over to help us celebrate our day. On April 6th, Jubal and I married, and the following day we left Maine to spend our honeymoon in a cottage on the west coast of Ireland. 

We found our way to our cottage that first day, lit the first peat fire in our stove, and took a nap while the harrowing west wind came over the bog. We were so struck with how surreal it felt to have arrived. We made it through dating and finding each other, deciding to marry, planning a home, planning the wedding, and now planning this trip. We were exhausted, and I don't remember when I'd slept so well as I did when we had first arrived to the cottage with the red door in Doonagore village, near Doolin. 

        

(wedding photos: Jennifer Searles Dumont

May~ We found our groove and delighted in driving all over Ireland to visit pubs, shops, museums, farms, random castles appearing on the horizon, and much much, so much to our pure delight, we witnessed the Burren come alive with the most sweet and delicate wild orchids. Such a treasure and blessing to witness such natural beauty.

We made new friends and spent time with old ones. Everywhere we went, we were our own version of a sponge -- soaking up every detail, color, historical fact, vernacular, dessert, and sounds that we could. 

June~ It started to sink in we had to leave at the end of the month. I packed even more in including a trip to the middle of the Aran Islands. I cannot pick one amazing moment of those three months. But if I had to, if I really did, it would be that side trip to Inis Meáin.

    

Leaving at the end of the month, I looked back on all that we had done, but mostly on all that I had thought about. I left feeling so grateful, refreshed, and inspired to do so many things on our return. The thing is, as much as we both were ready to go home to our home, our island, our state, our families -- we so badly wanted to stay. It was a very weird place to be. It was my fourth trip to Ireland, and each time I've gone, I didn't want to leave. But this time, this time, I felt such a strange pull that was ten times stronger than the last trip. I think it had something to do with living so near to that ancient bog that had seen and held so much. 

July~ We settled right back in and it felt as if we had never left. Getting back to our familiar things felt very sweet. I saw friends, family, and took a watercolor class at a nearby farm. Jubal got right back to work and even traveled for a bit. I returned to Medomak for my fourth year to teach fiber arts classes with my good friends. It was a wonderful week, as always.

 

August~ Jubal had to travel again for work, and I became more used to taking care of things in his absence. We held a yard sale. I harvested my first indigo crop of the year and held a small indigo dyeing party. My sister, mom, and two good friends came to learn about the process and dye a few pieces -- something I look forward to doing again next year. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to taking advantage of our garden beds and the Peaks Community Garden to grow more dye plants. Also, my youngest niece came for a sleepover for the first time. We had the best time, and I didn't want her to leave.

September~ My interest in foraging for mushrooms flourished, and a new obsession was born. Jubal and I attended a fun fungi fair in north-central Massachusetts to learn more. Then I packed up my pots, samples, books, aprons, and nerves and drove deep into the New Hampshire woods to teach natural dyeing at the Squam Art Workshops. It was a wonderful time of self-discovery, new friendships, and explorations. I also forged a new connection for a project that I've been working on since, and which I hope to share more about in the future. I attended the Common Ground Fair (again) where I picked out two fleeces for myself and pumpkins for Jubal. He makes a killer pumpkin pie. My oldest nephew came to stay for a sleepover for the first time, I taught him how to skirt a fleece, and he taught us how to pick up a chicken. We adopted two hens from neighbors the week before, and we didn't have much of a clue. I also held my first natural dye workshop at the house, which was a lot of fun.

October~ For 20 years I have dreamed about learning to play the fiddle. I finally decided it was about time I try. We took a small road trip up north to visit friends, and did more mushroom foraging, and it was particularly fun for Jubal as he had never been that far north in Maine. I spent more time with family and friends too.

    

November~ We took another road trip, but this time to Prince Edward Island. A wonderful scenic trip and more time with family and friends. Also this month, I hit an all time record high for sales in my etsy shop.

December~ Early on in this month I decided to spend more time trying to take things slow. The holiday season can make me feel crazy, stressed and like I'm not doing enough. I made a conscious decision to do less in the way of my shop and blogging so that I could do more in the way of creating more holiday cheer around our home and make time for friends and family. I wanted to soak up every moment of December by watching Christmas movies, listening to music, baking, trying new holiday crafting projects, and taking more time to really enjoy a season that could whirl right by.

     

Looking back on my year, I feel I am so blessed, and am inspired to unfold even more possibilities for 2014. 

And speaking of 2014, I'm so happy to share with you some fun plans I have in store for my shop, 44 Clovers, my blog which will soon be a website that Jubal's been building, and workshops that will be on offer here on Peaks, local shops in Portland, and beyond.    

Thank you, 2013, and all that you've blessed me with. 

ox, r

Just the Good Bits

Last week was much like any other week in my life of late. I knitted, foraged, visited with family, created, tried new things, and went apple picking. Ok, I don't go apple picking every week but I am so glad I did this week.

In my last post I lamented on and on about having too many ideas keeping me up at night and not always knowing how to balance life with so many awesome things to do. Awful problem isn't? It's ok, I know how lucky I am every single day to be home creating. So I decided I needed to start to organize my thought process into more of a flow chart, alter my habits so that creating, cleaning, living, all of it, can just all flow together and live in harmony:) I'm trying. That is until I new idea is sparked while vacuuming. Down goes the vacuum, up comes needle and thread. 

At the beginning of October I created this little journal for myself to help me remember just the good bits of each and every day. So, every night when I climb into my fluffy marshmallow bed, I jot down all of the bits of light that made me smile through out the day. I love looking back on it and remembering these small moments that fill my heart with so much joy. I also love it because its so easy to forget the next day when I have a million things I want to do. I want to not loose sight of the little things that gave me such a heaping spoonful of love and laughter through out the day. Like how I heard my youngest nephew Jude say my name for the first time, seeing my father twice in one day, having a meaningful conversation with two islanders on the way home, and finally not fumbling fingers going from the open E to the 3rd A on my violin. 

The following photos are a sampling of good bits....

Embroidery becomes me. As much as I've been obsessed with mushroom foraging and dyeing, I've been obsessed with trying to find time to embroider some of my favorite things. Below is the beginning of a series of Irish counties I will have available in my etsy shop in a few weeks. Each county in Irish. 

Oh yard sales, how I love thee.... several weeks ago I asked my dear husband if he might have any spare copper bits and bobs laying around in his endless supply of hardware in our basement. He wasn't sure but wrote a note to himself and stuck it on our cupboard for several more weeks. Then while passing through Hollis the other day, we found this. !!!!! What in the world?? You might ask. It's for dyeing:) I'll be soaking these bits in order to create a copper liquor to use as a second choice in mordanting the fibers and yarns I dye with plants. 

Progress on the Uptown Boot Socks. The pattern is from this book.  I love this book and this is the 5th pattern I've knitted. It's a super simple cable pattern and I've been using nature spun in lemon. 

Progress on the painting of our home. Your eyes or computer screen do not fool you. That is pink you are looking at. The top shingles only have the primer on. The dormers are still in the first color I choose- I've gone 3 shades lighter. But the pink on the siding is staying. It looks so beautiful in the light, exactly what I've pictured. And after all the hemming and hawing and consulting of family, I knew deep down it was exactly what I wanted. 

This is my attempt at using the new panoramic feature on the iphone 4s with the new operating system. It's fun but fickle. My view on the commute route.  

Collected more mushrooms a while back from my sisters and this time doing a spore print. Which I love doing. It's like magic seeing what comes out. Though these two prints give different colors, I still think they must be the same just different ages. Still need to polish up my mushroom identifying skills. 

Love this pink stem. 

The time finally came where I caved and decided to try to dye blueberries. In every workshop I have done for natural dyeing, I am asked (or sometimes told) about blueberries used as a dye because they must for the staining they usually leave behind! Finally put this to the test and found interesting results. 

I had 2 1/2 pints shriveling in the back of my fridge. But don't worry, I also have many pints in my freezer. 10 maybe? I love the idea of experimenting with food waste but not perfectly good food. So here it goes. 

I started one vat by soaking the blue berries in water and heating for 3 hours. After it cooled the next day, I strained out the berries, added the liquid to my dye vessel, added mordant, my pre soaked yarns, and a silk hankie. 

Now this silk hankie turned out to be the most interesting part of this experiment. I first soak it in the cold blueberry bath. 

Look at that color! This is after a slight rinse and hung to dry.

But then I had to do something silly and put it in the heat. After it was dried again, the color changed very much. Also, the bolder color above is with out mordant. 

I also created a second dye bath from the blueberries agin, this time cold soaking this Shetland wool for a day. I did a rinse test and no color stuck. I then slowly heated the vat for 3 hours keeping the temp between 160-180 and no color... Except it did alter the natural color. It left the wool a very pale off gray.... And the silk hanky, well it became even more grey in the day light. 

Three things that could have changed the color:

-cold vs. heat

-no alum vs alum

-no after soak vs after soak in mrs. Meyers lavender dish soap. A soap I use often for that after ph balancing adjustment. 

I look forward to working on why the color dulled. Could it have stayed that vibrant color? Or is it just the characteristic of the blueberry? Also, these were organic and no pesticides where used- which would, I'm sure alter final colors. 

Elsa. Our cutie who loves her belly rubbed. 

I started this Winter Leaves scarf using my own Shetland handspun yarn. It will soon be available in my etsy shop. Which will go beautifully with the Winter Leaves Hat.

Reflection from the lace curtain in my studio.

The studio as of late. Yarns and threads every where. 

This happens every time. Every time I say I'm done with mushroom foraging this year, I come across these while walking from the ferry to the car. 

The three black capped mushrooms below are called Phallus ravenelii. Very distinctive in appearance and odor. I think they smell like fresh flowers. The husband does not. The four above *just may be* Russet- scaly Tricholoma. My resource book here is very dated though. These top four I found in the ground and where completely dried. The black caps where not and are drying below in the basement. Soon soon soon! I will be cooking up pots left and right for the mushrooms and will post all results here. 

My lichen babies, I mean jars are doing well. I have 6 going now and shake them every morning. When I remember to I bring two of them outside, open them up for an airing in hopes of developing the color further. So far I have collections from Bailey's Island, Peaks Island, Eastern Promenade here in Portland, and Inish Maan, Ireland. Oh! And Squam lake, New Hampshire. Those are the two I air out. You can see them in the to the right, toad skin lichen or Umbilicaria papulosa and a black potato chip lichen. Still trying to find the name for. These two are taking on a deep earthy red color. The brighter jars in the center and to the left are all Xanthoria which I've learned are UV sensitive and why I do not set them outside as the colors will fade. 

My oldest sibling turned 40 last week and we all came together to celebrate with some cake. It was such a fun time and I laughed so hard reminiscing about how we used to listen to the Jerky Boys. Oh Gawd!! Watching my nieces and nephews play and such a nice time catching up with everyone. 

Capturing Elsa sleeping with her eye open... Kind of creepy. 

Jubal and I finally made it to his favorite orchard, Ravenhill Orchard. They grow organic apples including his favorite, the Black Oxford apple. It's a small variety with a hint of plum. Very tasty. 

This may be a type of polypore?

This may be another polypore, Coriolus versicolor? 

I found a wooly caterpillar. Something I haven't seen since I was a kid. I loved finding these little fuzzy creatures. 

Cider press scraps. It just accorded to me that these apple scraps might make an interesting dye. The thing is, it has been my experience and belief that anything flora speaking will give a dye. It just depends on the fiber, water content, water temp, mordant, and time. That reminds me, I also collected 3 types of apple wood from the ground for dyeing. And some dark rust colored weeds:)

These are my pair of Orchard fingerless mitts I finished a few weeks ago. Made from my own handspun Maine island fleece, dyed with madder and lichen. Something I may be writing a pattern for shortly. 

Of course when it was all over, I had to sample a homemade donut. Oh! It just melted in my mouth! 

Thanks for reading about my good bits. If you have some good bits you'd like to share, please leave a comment below:)

ox, r

p.s. a tiny little thing I forgot to mention, geeze! how could I forgot?! I've been featured in one of Ireland's most popular crafting blogs, michellemadethis.com. Michelle Fallon is a full time crafter and blogger living in Roscommon living the dream of crafting. She has been featured in publications and television in Ireland. I first came in contact with Michelle while Jubal and I were in Ireland for our honeymoon last spring. I had heard of and was planning on attending the May Roscommon Lamb Festival and Michelle was one of the contact people. I rang her up one day to get more info on what it was all about. You can read more about the day at the lamb festival here. It has been lovely getting to know Michelle and keeping in touch with her. In the very near future, I will be featuring herself here at my blog, so keep a look out:)