Today I let the dust stay where it was in the house and only worked at the farm because I had to. I just wanted to be lazy and do a bit of hooking. The sun was shining and so I settled down but just couldn't find the right color I wanted. I needed an just barely off white wool for my little cow so I boiled a few onion skins and made a weak solution and remembered that salt is supposed to be a mordant for vegetable base dye, so I added the salt and I wasn't pleased with the dirty looking white I got so I got a bit of dye solution and sprinkles a tiny bit here and there on the wool and then when it was what I thought it should be I added the vinegar and continued to simmer it and this is what I got.
The first photo was taken without a flash and it shows a bit darker color than the real color of the wool.
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This second photo was taken with a flash and shows a bit lighter than the color of the wool.
So my piece of wool is in between these two colors. |
I didn't had time to dye another off white piece so I hooked with white. next time i'll use vinegar as mordant because I got better result last time. But I'm pleased how my little piece of wool turned out.
I hope that all my American blogging friends had a HAPPY THANKSGIVING. JB
I love that color of green, now I am totally impressed that you just dyed your wool with a piece of onion skin and salt. I have always wanted to dye with purple onion skin so now I know it can have good results. My daughter in law uses kool aid to dye her wool that she knits with. You are just so handy Julia, thank you for your blessing too.
ReplyDeleteIt will be a busy week. :)
I hope you get a rest between calves.
Somedays it's good just to let the dust bunnies free-range. Very nice green wool. I say there is no such thing as dyeing mistakes, only new colors. More hooking opportunities!
ReplyDeleteKim, (Farm Girl) since my onion skin dye job didn't turned out like I wanted because salt dulls the color, I rinsed the salt out of the wool and added some fresh water and added a little green dye solution and when the color was what I wanted I added the vinegar and simmered it until the water was clear. I needed a light green anyway. I never tried purple onion skin yet. JB
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