Thursday 10 September 2009

Red Cabbage Stinks!



My sad, failed attempt at naturally dyeing yarn with red cabbage I grew in the garden this summer. Minus being a haven for spiders the cabbage grew quite well and produced an awesome dye. I have no idea where I went wrong! Maybe with the mordent. What was suppose to be a mild blue-green, came out as a light lilac depending on when I look at it. At other times it appears to look like I just got the undyed yarn sort of dirty, turning it gray.  This project also took me about 2 full days of boiling TONS of water and waiting.
 But in no way am I deterred from attempting dyeing again. The next time I hope to use onion skins for a bright yellow, or tea for brown.