I’ve been thinking about dyeing fabrics for most of the summer. It all started with the problem of not being able to find just the right two-color combination for one of my tartan quilts. I did find a perfect white/blue fabric and wondered if I could simply dye the white to green and have the blue/green that I needed. I found a quality dye in olive green and tried it with less than ideal results.

So, I went on Amazon.com and ordered a book about dyeing that purports to be “the only book about dyeing that you’ll ever need.” I couldn’t wait for it to come in the mail but when it did I was extremely put off/intimidated by all the talk of chemicals, protective wear, etc. I didn’t think I wanted anything to do with dyeing fabric after all.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up so I went back to Amazon and searched “natural dyeing” and bought two more (used) books on natural dyeing. The first one that came was an old black and white book for a library, circa 1970. It was nearly as intimidating as the first book. I was ready to give up.

When I received the second book in the mail and pulled it out of the envelope, I immediately knew I was going to like this one. I’ve been pouring over it ever since, anxious to try some of the natural recipes. Last weekend when I was in Northern Wisconsin I started looking around for some of the plants. As John and I were riding home (instead of flying, as planned) he noticed some sumac at the side of the road. I kept seeing it after that and finally pulled off into a rest area to harvest some. I brought a grocery bag full of sumac home but never had the time to try it out.

The next weekend, I came up to another cottage (John says I have an addiction to cottages) and threw in my dye pot and a few supplies just in case. I was/am planning to do some sewing for the cottage and thought all that time while I sewed I could also be boiling plants on the stove. The reason I hadn’t been able to do any of it at home is that each recipe seemed to require 1-2 hours of this and then another 1-2 hours of the next step. Mostly it is stuff that can simmer without much attention, but you still need to be around. Between work and sleep I never felt like I had that much time.

I put the sumac on to simmer and followed the recipe until I finally finished a skein of lovely muted brown yard late last night. I was hooked!

The next morning I went out to the Kal-Haven Trail with grocery bags and found goldenrod and what I think may be sheep sorrel. It was so lovely to walk among the fall colors and notice not only the leaves but all the undergrowth, the delicate flowers and colors. I came home and started the goldenrod recipe. I boiled and simmered it for 2 hours (plus some beach time) and prepared my yarn for the dye.

 

 

 

 

By the way, I am using yarn that I bought last year when I was in New Zealand. I actually bought it for Johnny but he hasn’t touched it yet so I decided I might as well dye it. I thought it would be easy to find yarn to take home for a gift but none of the yarn stores I was in really had a lot of New Zealand wool to offer. (I probably just didn’t look in the right places.) On my last day with Anne, while she was packing for ABS, I drove over to Hobbiton to have a look around and on the way home saw a sign for yarn. I pulled in and went inside a little side store attached to a house. A quite old lady with some disability (a previous stroke?) waited on me. I can’t remember if she spun her own yarn and or dyed it, but I do know it was from her sheep and that she had knit many different things for sale. I ended up just buying a large skein of the yarn.  Before I left she said I needed to go out a door at the back of the store and have a look. I opened the door onto the most idyllic scene, a grassy hillock leading down to a beautiful lake. It was incredibly beautiful.

I’m really loving this process of natural dyeing. It probably helps that I’m doing it at a cottage in one of the parts of the country that I’ve always loved, Michigan’s west coast. And that the sun is shining, I’m out in nature, and feeling a little bit like an “earth woman.” I have to say it: I think I’ve dyed and gone to heaven!